Why is a Chemical Pregnancy called a Chemical Pregnancy?

If you get a positive pregnancy test but end up having heavy bleeding days after seeing that positive test, sadly, it likely means you had an early pregnancy loss or an early miscarriage frequently referred to as a “chemical pregnancy”. And we are so sorry for your loss! If we can help support you in any way, please do let us know. For more information about Chemical Pregnancies, please check out this blog post.

So why is a chemical pregnancy called a chemical pregnancy anyways? It’s kinda weird term when you think about it!

Your body started producing enough of the hormones that cause a chemical reaction on that pregnancy test. You just so happened to catch that positive in the very early days, possibly days after implantation of the fertilized egg (also known as the embryo).

But this is all happening before your body develops a gestational sac in your uterus. When a miscarriage occurs during this in between stage, it is called a chemical pregnancy because without the sac, the pregnancy only happened at a chemical level. So it’s referred to as “chemical”.