Fertility Myths #3: Miscarriage and implantation issues are just the luck of the draw.

I hear that when women experience miscarriages, this is tough luck. Oh, it’s really common. Just keep trying. One in four pregnancies end in miscarriage, that’s normal. Just keep going.

Reality is that miscarriage is due to much more than just random misfortune. There are seven category reasons for miscarriages and implantation failures. Yet these reasons often do not get investigated until a woman has had three miscarriages.

It’s heartbreaking to think the recurrent loss that many couples experience when one miscarriage is bad enough.

So in our program, we actually screen pretty much every single couple that comes through for miscarriage reasons, ain order to make a difference in preventing a miscarriage – once they are pregnant, which for most of our patients is the primary problem.

So as far as miscarriages, there are complex reasons as to why they happen that fall into the following seven catergories

  1. Hormonal factors, reproductive as well as metabolic hormones, things like thyroid disorders, diabetes, you name it. There’s lots of different reasons.
  2. Anatomical reasons, so you know physical reasons like fibroids, or placental issues, or umbilical cord issues, all of those things, anatomical reasons for miscarriages
  3. Then you’ve got things like uterine defect where the uterus or the cervix is not coping with the pressure and cervical incompetence is an issue.
  4. Infections, which covers a huge array of possible and potential issues
  5. Immunological factors, things like miscarriage antibodies, red cell antibodies, antiplatelet antibodies. Full blood count to confirm platelet count, autoimmune conditions like lupus; all of those things are autoimmune and certainly immunological that will create an issue in keeping a healthy pregnancy to term.
  6. Genetic factors can play a role — things like MTHFR mutation; abnormalities in the fetus, for example can also cause an issue; parental abnormalities and genes other than of course MTHFR. There’s lots of thrombophilias, for example, or other reasons.
  7. “Unexplained” reasons like increased age, fetal malnutrition, preeclampsia like high blood pressure in pregnancy for the mother,

I often find these factors have not been investigated or taken into consideration to the degree that is required in order for couples to actually overcome miscarriage factors in fertility history.