When you have been trying to conceive for one month, one year or several years, the most joyous and happy moment that you can feel is when you see a positive home pregnancy test after missing a period. But the excitement and elation can quickly be erased by the negative news received by a doctor either over the phone or at the office, informing you that you have miscarried. A pregnancy loss or miscarriage is very heart-breaking, frustrating and devastating for any woman to go through once, let alone multiple times. A single miscarriage is very common and some will go undetected since most women would assume that her period was just late that month, not realizing that she had a very early pregnancy loss. Actually 20% of all pregnancies will end in a miscarriage, or 1 out of 5 pregnancies. Having 3 or more miscarriages in a row is not as common and is defined as recurrent miscarriage or habitual pregnancy loss.
Women who have experienced 3 or more miscarriages often start to blame themselves and wonder what they could have done to prevent the losses. Sadly, most recurrent miscarriages are unexplainable and outside of her control. There is very little she can do to prevent a miscarriage from happening. There are a couple of risk factors, such as alcohol consumption or illicit drug and smoke inhalations that will increase a woman’s chances of miscarriage; thereby, discontinuing these habits are within her control. Most miscarriages will happen within the first or second trimester or before the 20th week of pregnancy. About 80% of recurrent miscarriages will occur in the first trimester of the pregnancy.
Most doctors don’t consider the need to get evaluated until after experiencing over 2 consecutive losses, since miscarriages are common. When an evaluation is done, about 50% of couples will have the unfortunate news that the cause of their losses is unknown or unexplainable. Some common reasons for recurrent pregnancy losses are attributable to genetic or abnormal chromosomes which basically means that the cells are not dividing correctly to produce a viable fetus; structural abnormalities of the uterus (septate uterus) which will impede implantation or growth of an embryo; hormonal imbalances or deficiencies that will prevent a woman from sustaining a healthy pregnancy, such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), or insufficient levels of luteinizing hormones and progesterone; blood clotting disorders such as antiphospholipid antibody syndrome which can cut off the blood supply into the uterus ultimately causing a growing fetus to die; and infections or sexually transmitted diseases such as Chlamydia, have also been identified as causes for recurrent miscarriages. Age related factors also increase a woman’s chances of recurrent miscarriages as older eggs will generally contain more defects inhibiting normal cell division. The good news is that in most cases, recurrent miscarriages are treatable and many women will go on and have a successful pregnancy even after experiencing several losses.
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