14dpt – Beta HCG 521
November 9, 2010
I did #2 Beta today and HCG level is 521. Nice and strong. 🙂
My HCG level is a little bit high at this stage – about 3 times higher than 3 days ago. We are not sure if it will be one or two or even three babies growing in my uterus- we transferred 3 3-day embryos. I did some online search regarding HCG levels in single and twin pregnancies.
HCG levels in pregnancy
HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin, is a hormone made by the pregnancy that can be detected in the mother’s blood or urine even before the woman’s missed period. This hormone is what we look for with a “pregnancy test”.
HCG is first detectable in the blood as early as 7-8 days after ovulation by very sensitive HCG assays (research assays). In real life, blood pregnancy tests will be positive (> 2 mIU/ml) by 10-11 days after HCG injection or LH surge.
In general, the HCG level will double every 2-3 days in early pregnancy.
85% of normal pregnancies will have the HCG level double every 72 hours.
HCG levels peak at about 8-10 weeks of pregnancy and then decline, remaining at lower levels for the rest of the pregnancy.
There is a large variation in a “normal” HCG level for any given time in pregnancy.
NORMAL SINGLE PREGNANCIES
Day after HCG or LH | Average mIU/ml |
High mIU/ml |
Low mIU/ml |
# |
14 | 48 | 119 | 17 | 12 |
15 | 59 | 147 | 17 | 18 |
16 | 95 | 223 | 33 | 23 |
17 | 132 | 429 | 17 | 21 |
18 | 292 | 758 | 70 | 19 |
19 | 303 | 514 | 111 | 23 |
20 | 522 | 1690 | 135 | 13 |
21 | 1061 | 4130 | 324 | 12 |
22 | 1287 | 3279 | 185 | 22 |
23 | 2034 | 4660 | 506 | 13 |
24 | 2637 | 10000 | 540 | 16 |
HCG levels from normal twin pregnancies
Twin pregnancies tend to show higher HCG levels on a given day of pregnancy. However, there is a large variation in HCG levels between pregnancies, and great overlap exists between single and twin pregnancies.
NORMAL TWIN PREGNANCIES
Day after LH or HCG | Average mIU/ml |
High mIU/ml |
Low mIU/ml |
# |
14 | 68 | 313 | 56 | 7 |
15 | 38 | 159 | 26 | 9 |
16 | 146 | 803 | 112 | 12 |
17 | 154 | 542 | 52 | 8 |
18 | 360 | 1760 | 200 | 9 |
19 | 499 | 2509 | 215 | 13 |
21 | 963 | 5859 | 631 | 10 |
The information in the table above is part of a study carried out by Dr. Sherbahn that compared HCG levels from single, twin and heterotopic (combined intrauterine and ectopic) pregnancies.