[Angels4]

Hi,

This is my first time posting in this forum, but I think it's time I got some 'advice' from others who have sadly experienced a loss.

I found out yesterday that I have had a missed miscarriage. This was my fourth pregnancy. My first three ended up as a miscarriage all at 6 weeks, however, with this one, I had reached my 11 week scan, only to find that my baby had passed away at 9 weeks.

I guess I am looking for some hope. Has anyone experienced 4 losses and then managed to carry to term a beautiful, healthy child? I have had majority of tests and they cant seem to find anything wrong. I guess that's a good thing, but I suppose like many others, I feel like I need to blame something.

Will be having a discussion about further testing with the doctor in a few weeks, just wondered if anyone had any advice or any information on additional tests that are not routine.

Thanks in advance

[cherubcheeks]

Hi

Firstly, I am so, so sorry for your loss. I know how painful this is.

I have had 6 m/c and have 2 babies.

I had a number of tests done, including chromosome testing on my m/c's. All chromo tests came back with some kind of problem.

I also have a clotting problem - anticardiolypen antibodies therefore had to inject clexane (similar to aspirin) everyday on my healthy pregnancies. Not sure if it's a co-incidenece or the clexane helped me?

IVF offer a miscarriage management program and send you for millions of tests which may find something that can be treated.

Good luck and again, so sorry for your losses

xxxxx

[Mousky]

Ive had three missed miscarriages and lost 4 babies (one was twins). I have a healthy 4 week old now, after progestrone pesseries and clexane injections for first 12 weeks.

Firstly, I'm so sorry for your losses, its so demoralising and heart breaking.

Have you seen a specialist obstetrician? You would have qualified to attend the recurrent miscarriage clinic in your city hospital after your third loss. Recurrent miscarriage is diagnosed after 3 in a row- mother under 30 years, or 2 in a row- mother over 30 years. I would recommend going private though, you can pick and choose who you see.

When you see your specialist, ask for every test under the sun, ask for a laproscopy and NK cell biopsy. Research (british websites are good as theyre well ahead of us) everything and write it all down for your appointment. Basically don't take no for an answer. Push push push. And if your not happy with specialist, find a new one, don't get fobbed off.

Of all the tests I had (there were sooo many) the only thing she found was mild endo and some cysts. Even though my progestrone was good for last pregnancies, she put me on progestrone pessaries and even though I had no diagnosed clogging disorder, I was on clexane. As she said, we don't know everything, there could be a clothing disorder we don't know about.

If you are in melbourne, I can suggest a fantastic recurrent miscarriage specialist obstetrician, pm me.

Good luck.

[Angels4]

Thank you to you both so so much.

I really appreciate all the advice and I am so sorry that you both also had to go through such a horrible thing.

After my third miscarriage I was sent to the high risk clinic at my hospital and I had tests done on:

Thrombophilias
Antiphospholipid APS - ACA and LA
Factor V Leidin, Protein C + S, Prothrombin gene, Homocysteine

Thyroid under active

Chromosome (on both my husband and I)
Trans-location
Unbalanced

Bicornuate uterus

PCOS

Progesterone insufficiency

Everything came back clear/OK. The progesterone was tested when I fell pregnant with the 4th and levels were great, however I only had this tested as soon as I found out I was pregnant so I wasn't sure if it is possible that the progesterone can 'drop' through out the pregnancy?

They are going to do tests on my baby and the placenta for this 4th miscarriage, so I am hoping they may find something here.

At my next appointment, we will be discussing, NK cells, compatible DNA and vitamin deficiencies, but that's all I can find when I have researched.

I will definitely ask him about the clexane and the progesterone.

Part of me doesn't want anything to be wrong so I know that the chance of miscarriage is at a normal % and we must've had the worst case of bad luck, but another part of me hopes they find something so we can try and fix it.

I am so worried I will have another miscarriage. There is nothing I want more then to have a child with my husband. It breaks my heart that women go through this.


Thanks again for your advice. hugs to you both

[Angels4]

If you are in melbourne, I can suggest a fantastic recurrent miscarriage specialist obstetrician, pm me.

Good luck.

Hi, for some reason it wont let me pm you

I would love if you could send me the details of the specialist. It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks heaps

[*LucyE*]

I'm sorry you are going through this.

I have had 7 pregnancies and 3 healthy children. 3 of the pregnancies were early miscarriages and 1 was a late term miscarriage at 20 weeks.

After the late term miscarriage (my second pregnancy), my OB ran a heap of tests. I don't remember what they were because I was still too numb from the pain. From the quantity of blood they took, I assume it was a lot of different ones. That baby was also sent for testing but everything came back clear. Our Dr also organized genetic testing for DH and I and that also came back fine.

I understand it is frustrating and the need to find answers so that you can 'fix' it. Unfortunately, sometimes there just are no answers.

I went on to have 3 healthy children so there always is hope.

My last miscarriage, we were not ttc so I didn't alter my lifestyle or diet. I had been eating pates, soft cheeses and drinking alcohol and caffeine before I realized I may have been pregnant. Actually, that is true for all my miscarriages. I do sometimes wonder if that contributed but I don't beat myself up over it. With my 3 children's pregnancies, they were planned and I had started a preconception diet 4 months prior to conception. I'm not suggesting that you do the same, I just found it to be something I could control when it felt so far out of my control.

This post has been edited by *LucyE*: 22/02/2013, 01:08 PM

[Cinda Billy]

Hi, I have experienced 2 m/c, I had a healthy baby boy before this so i never could understand why it would be happening.
I had a number of tests done and found out I have Insulin resisitance, which could be the cause.
I gave up sugar and lost 6kg, although im not a big person. Since doing that im not 29 weeks pregnant with another beautiful healthy boy! Will never know if this was the cause but my OB said it could be likely it was. I was then high risk to have gestational diabetes and to my surprise I got the all clear!! Maybe its worth trying that test and see if it shows anything?
Good luck xoxox

Hi, I have experienced 2 m/c, I had a healthy baby boy before this so i never could understand why it would be happening.
I had a number of tests done and found out I have Insulin resisitance, which could be the cause.
I gave up sugar and lost 6kg, although im not a big person. Since doing that im not 29 weeks pregnant with another beautiful healthy boy! Will never know if this was the cause but my OB said it could be likely it was. I was then high risk to have gestational diabetes and to my surprise I got the all clear!! Maybe its worth trying that test and see if it shows anything?
Good luck xoxox

[Tammy Swanson]

Hi, I have experienced 2 m/c, I had a healthy baby boy before this so i never could understand why it would be happening.
I had a number of tests done and found out I have Insulin resisitance, which could be the cause.
I gave up sugar and lost 6kg, although im not a big person. Since doing that im not 29 weeks pregnant with another beautiful healthy boy! Will never know if this was the cause but my OB said it could be likely it was. I was then high risk to have gestational diabetes and to my surprise I got the all clear!! Maybe its worth trying that test and see if it shows anything?
Good luck xoxox

Hi OP,
I was just coming in to say the same. I am sorry for your losses as it never gets any easier does it? I had 4 miscarriages and 1 ectopic and went on to have a baby boy and I am now also pregnant again with no#3! I will offer the same advice (this is said with kindness) as I wish my OB/fertility specialist had been more firm with me. If you need to lose weight then lose it until you conceive a successful pregnancy. I was never hugely overweight just by a few kilos but then with each miscarriage I buried my face in tubs of ice cream and it got even worse. All my tests came back clear as well which was the frustrating part.
I then went and saw a naturopath who basically told me that due to my increased weight and high sugar diet the quality of my eggs were probably not great which was the reason I was miscarrying. she was blunt and I cried for 2 days straight but then did the same as Cinda Billy and lost weight and gave up sugar or at least kept to a minimum and I literally feel pregnant within a few months of reaching a healthy weight with my DS. If you don't have weight to lose then just try a sugar free diet which at the very least will make you feel better and perhaps more positive.
I have a lovely friend who had a very high BMI and wanted to do IVF but was told by her clinic that she needed to get her weight down and her BMI under a certain level before they would treat her as they said the same thing as my naturopath, that the egg quality is not great when you are carrying excess weight.
I wish you luck and just say don't give up!

[zjb2]

Hi OP,

Very sorry to hear about your loses, it is heartbreaking.

I too have had 4 miscarriages in a row while TTC no 1.

After going to the recurrent miscarriage specialist through our local IVF centre (NSW) a number of potential issues were found. Probably the biggest one was that my DH has a high level of sperm DNA fragmentation. Having a high sperm DNA fragmentation can double your baseline risk of miscarriage. We ended up using IVF for this reason and now have a 6 month old.

The test for this isn't (or wasn't back then) included in the standard sperm tests, so it might be worth asking for it specifically.

PM if you would like any more information.

Best of luck (and strength) with your journey ahead.

[peebs]

I was in the same position as you. My DS was pregnancy number 5 with no reason why.

I had three losses before 6 weeks and one at 8 weeks. I did back to back IVF cycles for two years before conceiving DS (to this day I'm not sure if they were needed, but we didn't know that at the time because I wasn't falling pregnant and when I did I lost them for "no reason"). I also nearly lost my DS (heavy bleeding and cramping and delayed growth in first trimester).

Eventually (because of my miscarriage and ultrasounds with DS) my FS realised my blood was clotting during pregnancy - although all my blood tests came back normal for absolutely every blood test I had in a three years period, including the conditions listed under Thrombophilias is the PP - and this was preventing proper implantation (early losses), causing delayed growth in the embryo (miscarriage) and also could have caused stillbirth (placenta issues).

Success with DS: I was put on Aspirin and Clexane injections daily right through the pregnancy and monitored heavily by a Physician as well as my OB with blood tests and ultrasounds. My placenta was still gritty when he was born, but DS was born safe and sound after being induced at 39 weeks.

I was also on progesterone twice a day from conception until 16ish weeks, as a precaution and will be high risk for any future pregnancies.

I'm so sorry for your losses. The missed miscarriage must have been a horrible shock. There is definitely hope. I know once you get to that stage it feels like it will never happen, but there is most definitely still hope. Good luck.