Recurrent Miscarriage Thread

[Hope39]

Congrats Tasha, 2kids, and DSemcho! (And anyone else I might have missed!)


I don't post here often. I guess because I've only had two losses, and wasn't sure if I really belonged. But this week, after being symptomatic for years but testing negative, I FINALLY got diagnosed with hypothyroidism. My doctor thinks I probably have Hashimoto's, as my thyroid is very painful and inflamed. At the end of August, my TSH was 1.15. Last Monday, it was 88.89. Yikes! So they put me on 100 mcg of levothyroxine. Hopefully today I'll get blood drawn to see if I have antithyroid antibodies. My endocrinologist says with levels like mine, it's no wonder I am profoundly infertile and have lost the two pregnancies I managed to achieve with Clomid.

I did a round of Femara this cycle (before I got the diagnosis), which succeeded in making me ovulate (which is a big deal for me!). I know with a TSH as high as mine is, pregnancy is unlikely. It's so weird to be hoping that I'm not pregnant so we can get my thyroid and testosterone under control.

What a whirlwind this week has been! I went from a year and a half of my doc telling me my miscarriages were bad luck and my difficulty conceiving was just PCOS to this! Where if I don't take levothyroxine and do something to lower my testosterone, I'll just keep having losses whenever I manage to get pregnant.

Ginger - i have all of the above, hypothyroidism and hashi's.

I managed to half my thyoid antibodies by removing gluten completely out of my diet

I am 175 of thyroxine and take prednisolone and hydroxycloroquine for the thyroid antibodies and nk cells x

 

[DSemcho]

dsemcho - that is really tough for you . We had 3 losses in 15 months and that was hard enough. I hope everything works out this time , how are you feeling? Lol, I know, it drives us all crazy, my particular favourite was the person who told me (after no. 2) that it would keep happening over and over until I found out what caused it. I still don't have a reason after 4. Thanks, hope this month brings happier news too for everyone

So far everything is fine. Really nauseous and on top of it I got a yeast infection and I am sick. I have an ultrasound on Thursday (6w5d) to check for a heartbeat. We will go from there.

 

[Mrs Reineke]

Hello ladies,

Hope39, I wish you the best of luck when you start trying again here shortly.

Tasha, I'm so glad all is going well for you!!

blueblue, I wish you the best of luck with trying again after your recent loss.

GingerPanda, I've had 2 losses as well. We are currently trying again and I'm incredibly nervous.

DSemcho, I wish you a ton of luck for your appointment on Thursday. Pray you get to see that little heartbeat!!

AFM: I'm on CD 15 and we have been BDing that past few days. I think I ovulated within the past couple days. Hoping we caught it! I'm so scared. I'm absolutely terrified of miscarrying again. I'm doing all that I can on my side and just have to put it into God's hands and pray for the best.

 

[GingerPanda]

Hope, is there a link between Hashi's and NK cells? I don't know much about it yet.

Thanks for the welcome, ladies.

DSemcho, I hope they get a nice strong heartbeat for you!

Mrs Reineke, I'm scared of trying again too. But we'll never get rainbows if we don't, so here we are! I'm going to try to emotionally distance myself from my next pregnancy as much as I can. I don't know how much good it will do, though.

 

[Hope39]

Hope, is there a link between Hashi's and NK cells? I don't know much about it yet.

Thanks for the welcome, ladies.

DSemcho, I hope they get a nice strong heartbeat for you!

Mrs Reineke, I'm scared of trying again too. But we'll never get rainbows if we don't, so here we are! I'm going to try to emotionally distance myself from my next pregnancy as much as I can. I don't know how much good it will do, though.

Hashi is an auto immune disease so you do tend to have elevated nk cells too when you have an auto immune disease x

 

[Mrs Reineke]

That's what I plan on doing as well GingerPanda. It sounds horrible to say that, but I think I'm going to try to just "assume" it is going to end quickly when I do get pregnant again until I'm proven otherwise. That way I can try to mentally prepare myself for another loss.

 

[DSemcho]

Hope, is there a link between Hashi's and NK cells? I don't know much about it yet.

Thanks for the welcome, ladies.

DSemcho, I hope they get a nice strong heartbeat for you!

Mrs Reineke, I'm scared of trying again too. But we'll never get rainbows if we don't, so here we are! I'm going to try to emotionally distance myself from my next pregnancy as much as I can. I don't know how much good it will do, though.

Hello ladies,

Hope39, I wish you the best of luck when you start trying again here shortly.

Tasha, I'm so glad all is going well for you!!

blueblue, I wish you the best of luck with trying again after your recent loss.

GingerPanda, I've had 2 losses as well. We are currently trying again and I'm incredibly nervous.

DSemcho, I wish you a ton of luck for your appointment on Thursday. Pray you get to see that little heartbeat!!

AFM: I'm on CD 15 and we have been BDing that past few days. I think I ovulated within the past couple days. Hoping we caught it! I'm so scared. I'm absolutely terrified of miscarrying again. I'm doing all that I can on my side and just have to put it into God's hands and pray for the best.

Thank you both!!

That's what I plan on doing as well GingerPanda. It sounds horrible to say that, but I think I'm going to try to just "assume" it is going to end quickly when I do get pregnant again until I'm proven otherwise. That way I can try to mentally prepare myself for another loss.

And like all of you I'm feeling the same way. I'm trying not to get excited yet, even though for once things seem to be going good. Every cramp, twinge or back ache brings on that dreadful feeling that I know so well. If this one makes it I will probably be the same way the whole way through. When they gave me my first ultrasound on 9Dec (5w3d) I was expecting there to be nothing, and even told the u/s tech that but she said I was wrong and showed me a yolk sac.... I'm still terrified! But I know we will all get our rainbow's! Regardless of how we get them.

 

[GingerPanda]

Got the radiologist's report of my thyroid ultrasound from Friday in my MyChart today. My endocrinologist hasn't called me to talk about it yet (but it's only 7:30am here).

All it says is this:

Impression:
1. Bilateral thyroid enlargement.
2. Diffusely heterogeneous thyroid with 3 small hypoechoic, solid
nodules measuring up to 0.6 cm. Findings are most consistent with
multinodular goiter. Consideration of followup thyroid ultrasound in 12
months is recommended.

I know heterogeneous is bad. And hypoechoic nodules are bad... I'm wondering if they're going to want to do a Fine Needle Aspiration of one of the nodules to see if it's cancerous. I'm very nervous now!

 

[2kidsplusttc3]

so is anyone else having trouble with lupus and pregnant in here? I am high risk bc of that and my miscarriages. and I was just curious.

I had to stop one of my meds bc it isn't safe for pregnancy.

 

[Mrs Reineke]

DSemcho, thank you. I'm praying this is your rainbow. Seeing the sac on the ultrasound had to be exciting! I haven't seen anything on an ultrasound yet. With my 5 1/2 week loss we didn't even do an ultrasound because my HCG level was at 15 when I went it with spotting which is negative. Then with my 6 week one we did do an ultrasound, but there wasn't anything in my uterus. I'm praying maybe this next time I'll get to see a baby.

GingerPanda, don't worry just yet. It may be something that is easily fixable and you'd think if they wanted to do a follow up ultrasound they would be doing it sooner than 12 months if it was a big concern. Praying everything is just fine and you won't have to worry.

2kidsplusttc3, I don't know much about having lupus and pregnancy unfortunately. But I have seen other ladies talk about it. So you should be able to get advice on here.

 

[DSemcho]

It's been the same for me Mrs. R. That was my first ever ultrasound because I always lose it right before the 5 week mark. I only got the ultrasound because of spotting and cramping.

 

[Mrs Reineke]

Well I'm so happy you saw progess DSemcho!!

 

[Hope39]

so is anyone else having trouble with lupus and pregnant in here? I am high risk bc of that and my miscarriages. and I was just curious.

I had to stop one of my meds bc it isn't safe for pregnancy.

I dont think ive come across anyone with lupus in this thread and ive been her just over 3 years now

Do you still eat gluten? x

 

[petitpas]

2kids, do you have systemic lupus not lupus anticoagulant? I'm assuming the former due to mention of other meds...
I'm not sure where you are but there is a very good lupus pregnancy clinic in London. I believe they were the first to prescribe anti-malarial medication to calm the immune system down. Some of the nk cells ladies on here are on the same treatment as a result of the success rate at the London clinic. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone with lupus going through pregnancy now. I only know a lady who has been diagnosed since. She suffered from blood clots and recurrent miscarriages but had two children in the end. She was seen in the London clinic and eventually was diagnosed with full blown lupus.

I hope you are one of the cases where symptoms ease during pregnancy with no flare ups!
Sorry I can't help more

 

[Hope39]

I'm taking the anti malaria to calm my immune system further

Xx

 

[Mrs Reineke]

I have never heard of the NKCells until just recently on here. They must not be very common?

 

[petitpas]

Mrs, it is the newest theory for recurrent miscarriage and pretty much the last stop when all other tests/treatments have failed. Research is still a bit sketchy due to the subject being so new and also because it is very difficult to run studies on women with recurrent miscarriages. Imagine having to find enough women who don't have any other cause for mc and are willing to stop taking all other meds and then possibly be assigned a placebo. Not exactly easy...

The medical community is very divided over the subject. The NHS and other large medical bodies abroad won't support the nk cells theory without substantial evidence, which doesn't exist yet. You will find that only a few doctors are open to the idea of treating the immune system. Testing for nk cells is a whole other can of worms as there are supporters of different methods...

On the upside, look at when they discovered Factor V Leiden. Not so long ago and now it is standard practice to test for the clotting factors they know (they are still discovering new ones!).

All I can say about nkcells from my personal experience is that I was sceptical of the testing process and the exact theories behind them but suppressing the immune system worked for me and I have seen it work for others when nothing else did so I definitely think there is room in the recurrent miscarriage specialist's tool box for immune treatment.

 

[2kidsplusttc3]

2kids, do you have systemic lupus not lupus anticoagulant? I'm assuming the former due to mention of other meds...
I'm not sure where you are but there is a very good lupus pregnancy clinic in London. I believe they were the first to prescribe anti-malarial medication to calm the immune system down. Some of the nk cells ladies on here are on the same treatment as a result of the success rate at the London clinic. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone with lupus going through pregnancy now. I only know a lady who has been diagnosed since. She suffered from blood clots and recurrent miscarriages but had two children in the end. She was seen in the London clinic and eventually was diagnosed with full blown lupus.

I hope you are one of the cases where symptoms ease during pregnancy with no flare ups!
Sorry I can't help more

yes I have sle lupus. but I live in the usa! I was on malaria meds but they didn't really help so I quit them 4 months ago. I was told my other medication I had to stop.

 

[2kidsplusttc3]

so is anyone else having trouble with lupus and pregnant in here? I am high risk bc of that and my miscarriages. and I was just curious.

I had to stop one of my meds bc it isn't safe for pregnancy.

I dont think ive come across anyone with lupus in this thread and ive been her just over 3 years now

Do you still eat gluten? x

no I don't eat gluten.

 

[Hope39]

That's good, gluten bad for anyone with auto immune diseases

Xx