Can vaginal ultrasound cause miscarriage?

Both vaginal ultrasound and B-ultrasound are medical testing methods that use ultrasound to examine the inside of the human body, but the two testing methods use different parts of the body. Because B-ultrasound is mainly performed on the female abdomen, while vaginal ultrasound is an ultrasonic examination of the female vagina. So compared with B-ultrasound, although vaginal ultrasound avoids the trouble of drinking water, its risk factor will be higher. But if a pregnant woman does a vaginal ultrasound, will it cause miscarriage?

Can vaginal ultrasound cause miscarriage?

Will transvaginal ultrasound cause miscarriage? Whether ultrasound examination is safe for the fetus, especially for the embryo in early pregnancy (first trimester), is receiving increasing attention and research. Normal early pregnancy refers to women of childbearing age who have regular menstrual cycles, have not had their last menstrual period for three months, are pregnant and want to give birth, and are not accompanied by abdominal pain or irregular vaginal bleeding and other discomforts.

There are currently two types of ultrasound examinations commonly used to assist in the diagnosis of early pregnancy: transabdominal and transvaginal ultrasound, referred to as abdominal ultrasound and vaginal ultrasound. When checking early pregnancy through abdominal ultrasound, one often needs to drink a lot of water first, and only after the bladder is filled to a certain level can one understand the development of the embryo in the uterus. With vaginal ultrasound, one can avoid the trouble of drinking water and can check the condition of the embryo in the uterus at any time.

The latest research has clearly suggested that normal early pregnant women should not undergo vaginal ultrasound examination. The study showed that for women in early pregnancy at 6-7 weeks of gestation, 10 minutes of transvaginal ultrasound exposure could cause damage to the embryo structure and abnormal biochemical reactions; while 3 minutes of transvaginal ultrasound exposure had similar results to 10 minutes of abdominal ultrasound exposure: both showed slight damage to the embryo. Obviously, the adverse biological effects of ultrasound on embryonic tissue are closely related to the irradiation dose. The increase in irradiation time and frequency will lead to an increase in the biological effects on the embryo. Although the study has not found any damage to the embryo's genes, it has shown that vaginal ultrasound has certain hazards to early pregnancy embryos, and the longer the ultrasound exposure time, the greater the damage to the embryo. Therefore, for women who are pregnant early and want to have children, transvaginal ultrasound should not be used as a routine measure to check for early pregnancy. From the perspective of eugenics, the current majority opinion is to avoid routine ultrasound examinations during early pregnancy, and it is even more inappropriate to use vaginal ultrasound to assist in the diagnosis of early pregnancy.

Because during this stage, the embryo's organs are growing and developing, the embryo is often extremely sensitive to external physical and chemical factors and is easily damaged. Ultrasound examination is only performed on early pregnant women who have irregular vaginal bleeding, abdominal pain, or suspected poor fetal development and other indications for examination to assist in the diagnosis. For those who want to protect their pregnancy, abdominal ultrasound is recommended. The examination usually takes 3 minutes and should be completed within 10 minutes at most. Remember, the principle of B-ultrasound examination is: diagnosis should be made in the shortest possible time with the minimum ultrasound dose.