Retained products of conception (RPOC) are the placental and/or fetal tissue that remain in the womb following childbirth, a medical termination of pregnancy or a miscarriage.
Often, some of the pregnancy tissue remains in the uterus after a miscarriage. If it is not removed by scraping the uterus with a curette (a spoon-shaped instrument), you may bleed for a long time or develop an infection.
The term retained products of conception (RPOC) refers to intrauterine tissue that develops after conception and persists after medical and surgical pregnancy termination, miscarriage, and vaginal or cesarean delivery. This intrauterine tissue is often of placental origin [1].
Most of the tissue passes within 2 to 4 hours after the cramping and bleeding start. Cramping usually stops within a day. Light bleeding or spotting can go on for 4 to 6 weeks. Two weeks after the tissue passes, your ob-gyn may do an ultrasound exam or other tests to make sure all the tissue has passed.
This treatment involves a surgical procedure known as a dilatation and curettage (D&C) which is done under a general anaesthetic. The procedure will remove any pregnancy tissue from your uterus. It is successful in 95 to 100 per cent of cases but there are small surgical risks.
Dilatation and curettage ('D&C') is an operation to scrape away tissue from the inside of the womb (uterus). It's used to diagnose and treat many conditions, including abnormal bleeding, and after a miscarriage.
In a miscarriage that happens beyond 6 weeks, more tissue will be expelled. The expelled tissue usually resemble large blood clots. Depending on the point at which the pregnancy stopped developing, the expelled tissue could range in size from as small as a pea to as big or bigger than an orange.
Some miscarriages occur with an infection in the uterus. This is a serious condition that requires urgent treatment to prevent shock and death. With septic miscarriage, the patient usually develops fever and abdominal pain and may have bleeding and discharge with a foul odor.
It's not at all clear why some miscarriages happen within days of a baby dying and others take much longer before the pregnancy hormone levels drop and the physical miscarriage begins. Sometimes that delay may be a matter of days, but it might take several weeks.
Sometimes the emotional impact is felt immediately after the miscarriage, whereas in other cases it can take several weeks. Many people affected by a miscarriage go through a bereavement period. It's common to feel tired, lose your appetite and have difficulty sleeping after a miscarriage.
If you are less than 8 weeks pregnant when the miscarriage occurs, the expelled tissue will look no different from heavy menstrual bleeding. If you have reached 8 to 10 weeks, more tissue will be expelled which can resemble large blood clots, possibly some pinkish/grayish material, or even a discernible sac.
What does brown discharge with the first period after a miscarriage mean? Brown discharge is old blood leaving your body. It's perfectly normal to experience brown discharge for a few days after you have your period.
You may like to take the pregnancy tissue home with you to bury, and you may have your own funeral. You may choose to employ a private funeral director and have a private funeral, burial or cremation.
The clots that are passed are dark red and look like jelly. They might have what looks like a membrane inside, which is part of the placenta. The sac will be inside one of the clots. At this time, the developing baby is usually fully formed but still tiny and difficult to see.
It may be hard to tell if you have passed tissue, because when you pass tissue you may also pass large blood clots. Tissue may appear gray or pink. Passing tissue may be a sign of miscarriage. If you pass tissue or have moderate bleeding any time during pregnancy, call your doctor immediately.
Tests. The hospital can carry out tests to confirm whether you're having a miscarriage. The tests can also confirm whether there's still some pregnancy tissue left in your womb (an incomplete or delayed miscarriage) or if all the pregnancy tissue has been passed out of your womb (a complete miscarriage).
However, doctors may still not be able to know whether you have miscarried straight away. If this is the case, they may ask you to have more blood tests and have an ultrasound scan again in 1 or 2 weeks.
Both may look like typical period clots, though it is not uncommon for them to be larger than normal. Actual pregnancy tissue may not be discernible until after the eighth week. Then, the tissue may look like pink, white, or gray tissue. A person may also be able to see a fluid-filled sac in the passed tissue.
There is no reason to avoid having a bath or shower on the day following a miscarriage. It is advised to use warm water rather than very hot water. You can resume swimming as soon as you feel fit enough to do so although it is advisable to wait until any vaginal bleeding or discharge has stopped.
After a miscarriage, how soon can you try to get pregnant again? In the United States, the most common recommendation was to wait three months for the uterus to heal and cycles to get back to normal. The World Health Organization has recommended six months, again to let the body heal.
A thickened endometrial lining after miscarriage is a normal finding.
You may need to firstly collect the tissue in a bowl placed under the toilet seat. It is important to store the pregnancy tissue sample in the fridge and NOT the freezer while you wait to get it to the hospital or your doctor.
The physical recovery can take 1 or 2 months. Your period should start within 4 to 6 weeks. Don't put anything in your body, including a tampon, and don't have sex for about 1-2 weeks. It can take longer for you to heal emotionally, especially if you knew you were pregnant when you miscarried.