Habitual Miscarriage

Pregnancy loss, or habitual miscarriage, can be defined as miscarrying more than twice in a row prior to 20 weeks. Repeated miscarriages indicate a woman's inability to complete a pregnancy and the need to undergo a series of tests under the care of a reproductive endocrinologist/gynecologist.

Women with no history of full-term pregnancies suffer from primary repeated miscarriage, which occurs in about one in six normal pregnancies.  In most cases of repeated miscarriage, the cause can be identified but in a small percentage of cases, nothing is ever determined to be the definitive cause. Women who have suffered as many as six or seven miscarriages, however, can go on to have a successful pregnancy.

The causes of repeated miscarriage fall into 6 areas: infections (bacterial/viral), hormonal (luteal defects), structural (malformation/scarring/polyps/incompetent cervix), immunological (antibodies to pregnancy), medical conditions (diabetes/thyroid/ insulin resistance/glucose intolerance), and genetic (translocation defects/aneuploidy).  Exposure to toxins can also contribute to repeated miscarriage, but these are usually discovered before a second miscarriage.

Tests to determine the causes of habitual miscarriage include various laboratory tests looking to identify hormonal, medical, immunological conditions, radiological test, a hysterosalpingogram,office evaluations, endometrial biopsy/ ultrasounds,and surgical evaluations, hysteroscopy/laporoscopy.

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