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A blighted ovum can be seen during an ultrasound, where there is an empty fetal sac in the uterus. The fetal sac is without content, which means that there is no fetus which is something that you would normally see in a normal pregnancy. A wind-egg is due to an error in an egg cell during the early stages of cell division, when an egg is fertilized, it will during a normal pregnancy start to divide itself, and some cells will form the placenta and others a fetus.

When there is talk about a wind-egg, then there is no formation of the fetus, but of the placenta, where it will keep growing and produce pregnancy hormones (HCG). Therefore it is typically if one is pregnant with a wind-egg to produce the same amount of hormones as in a normal pregnancy. Which means that one is able to get a positive pregnancy test and have a normal pregnancy and so forth.

After a certain amount of time, the blighted ovum is unable to maintain the normal hormonal production flow, and the body will by itself start a spontaneous abortion or one will be referred to the hospital and get a curettage.