Recurrent Miscarriage Thread

[nocturnalstar]

Thanks Dairymomma! I still haven't had any bleeding but my HCG was only 450 on Tuesday and had gone down to 350 yesterday so I hope it will start soon. I'm guessing this pregnancy didn't progress much past 4 weeks but my body has held on to it again for some reason... 7 weeks today

You ladies are so amazing, I just feel like curling up under a rock and never coming out!

xxx

 

[ReadynWaiting]

I have been working with a Naturopath since feb, taking a bunch of supplements, Accupuncture 2x/wk, cut out gluten, sugar, dairy and exercising. We decided May would be when we actively start trying again and I'm terrified! I am cd 5 and the closer we get to trying i feel overwhelmed and scared.
Has anyone had a healthy pg following multiple miscarriages not going through a specialist? I am not interested in drugs or intervention more than what I can correct naturally. Am I being ridiculous?

 

[QueenofChaos]

You ladies are so amazing, I just feel like curling up under a rock and never coming out!

xxx

I know exactly how that feels. Sooo sorry. Hope you're ok.

 

[dairymomma]

ready-I haven't but I also didn't start seriously working with the naturopath until after my son was born and I was already under the care of my specialist. However, the naturopath has found some things that I've passed on to my OB who has ordered testing and treatment changes as a result. They've never talked or anything but in a weird roundabout way, they are coordinating care for me and I like that I can talk to both of them about my pg treatment plans.

For some women natural medicine works wonders. I have a cousin who found iodine supplements were her 'magic cure' and it was through a naturopath that she found this out. For me however, I know the natural medical world can't treat everything I'm dealing with. It can help with the folate deficiency to a certain extent and it's certainly helped correct the hormone imbalances but it can't help with the clotting issues or the bleeding during pregnancy.

 

[Kelada11]

I have been working with a Naturopath since feb, taking a bunch of supplements, Accupuncture 2x/wk, cut out gluten, sugar, dairy and exercising. We decided May would be when we actively start trying again and I'm terrified! I am cd 5 and the closer we get to trying i feel overwhelmed and scared.
Has anyone had a healthy pg following multiple miscarriages not going through a specialist? I am not interested in drugs or intervention more than what I can correct naturally. Am I being ridiculous?

I don't think you are being ridiculous. I had multiple miscarriages, went to fertility clinic and did lots of testing only to find out my husband and I had nothing "wrong" with us.
Got pregnant again in February, decided to try natural Chinese medicine. Acupuncture, herbs. I am currently further along than ever before (13 weeks). Not sure if the natural medicine was what did it, but hey, it's worth a try! I also started taking low dose aspirin daily.
I also feel like reducing general life stresses helped me. Let the dishes and cleaning slip once in a while, or maybe even get a house cleaner? Focus on you and what's most important!
Best of luck

 

[Aurora CHK]

Ladies I hope it's ok for me to join you. I've had 4 chemical pregnancies, and to complicate things hubby and I are also heavily sub-fertile so it's very difficult for us to even fall pregnant let alone stay pregnant.

Miraculously I seem to have achieved a natural pregnancy this month but I just feel like I'm waiting for the sword to fall. I don't dare test because I'm too traumatised by the many past experiences of lightening lines. I have a HCG test booked for this Thursday but I'm thinking of cancelling it and waiting for the heartbeat scan the following Wed as at least hubby and I would be together for the result, and with our miscarriage consultant (who has booked the scan). This was how we found out we'd lost our last, too. (The previous two I'd known from lightening lines and bleeding).

I am trying to be positive because I've been warned that the terror I felt of miscarrying my last could have been a contributing factor to actually losing it (cortisol/adrenaline affecting my immune system and making it attack 'foreign bodies') but it feels so impossible to think optimistically and I'm afraid of getting my hopes up, starting to 'bond' etc because of the anguish that comes after.

I hope this isn't triggery for anybody and thank you for listening xxx

 

[Aurora CHK]

Ps things I did differently this month was cut out sugar and carbohydrates, start taking Pregnacare Max (for the activated form of folic acid and B-vits). Hubby has been on Proxeed for Dna fragmentation and other issues. Since BFP I've been on aspirin, Clexane 40 and Prednisolone 20mg plus had 2hours of an intralipid infusion.

 

[Aurora CHK]

Last thing to say is that my issues (all test results, MTHFR etc) are all in my signature but if anybody can't see that I'm happy to share anything about my journey & learning to date if it's helpful. Short version is we've never found anything definitive, (karyotyping etc normal, killer cells mild elevation but high cytokines ratio increase, whatever that means...).

 

[dairymomma]

Aurora-Sorry that you find yourself here but hopefully this is your sticky rainbow and you can move over to the PARL thread in the Pregnancy After Loss forum quickly. As for the stress causing a miscarriage, I've NEVER heard that. I've had 10 losses and 3 rainbows. I've seen 4 different doctors now and had loads of testing done but not one of my doctors has ever said that being stressed has CAUSED the miscarriage. However, they all say that stress is obviously not good for me or the baby and recommend that I do what I can to stay calm. (And if you are curious, my diagnosis thus far is hormone imbalances, MTHFR and clotting issues, and first trimester bleeding. The thought is baby implants and this causes a bleed but my clotting issues prevent this bleed from being repaired properly and a large clot forms. This clot then compromises the placenta and the uterine tissue which ultimately leads to a miscarriage. However, I suspect there is something else going on too because if I catch on a left side ovulation cycle, the pregnancy is always a blighted ovum. None of my doctors feel this is an issue so they are not looking at it further.

Regarding your signature, in the Miscarriage forum, signatures aren't visible as a general rule so no one here can see it as yet. However, if you post in other forums it should be visible there.

 

[Aurora CHK]

Thank you DairyMomma. I don't know why I haven't been here before.

Sadly PARL not going to see me anytime soon as I started bleeding this evening and a test confirmed this one has has gone the way of the others. I'll update more when I have pulled myself together somewhat.

 

[dairymomma]

hon. We'll be here when you are ready to talk.

 

[ttc126]

Hey ladies I hope you don't mind me joining. I had a chemical in Nov 2015 followed by mc at 6-7 weeks in Feb and currently going through another now.

I had two high risk pregnancies and live births but now can't seem to stay pregnant Considering acupuncture but I'm not even sure what to do now.

 

[Aurora CHK]

Has anybody been told that their miscarriage issue may be related to DNA fragmentation of the sperm? Has anybody had PGS/PGD testing before on embryos?

I think our consultant is going to encourage us to go ahead with our previous plan which is three rounds of ICSI IVF with PGS genetic testing, to try to get a few embryos that seem sound, then if there seem to be one or two decent embryos, then prepare my body for possible pregnancy by immune-suppressing me, filling me with blood thinners, steroids etc. Then embryo transfer.

However this costs such a monumental amount of money because of all the drugs we need for me to produce eggs, because of the ICSI (sperm injection due to hubby's poor sperm quality), because of the testing, and then all the pregnancy-preparation protocol - and I just feel that we could do all that and just end up in exactly the same place, losing any resulting pregnancy and not really understanding why, but now with no money left at all to try anything else.

I don't know if the genetic testing will help in terms of DNA fragmentation being the possible cause of all the losses (five chemicals to date) so need to better understand that.
But mostly I'm now thinking that we are crazy to keep trying with my eggs, his sperm and my womb. We need to probably take whatever money we can scrape together and instead try one or more of the following:

my eggs, my body, donor sperm
donor eggs, my body, his sperm
my eggs, donor body (surrogate), his sperm

The problem is that none of our three consultants to date can say which of these are more likely to work, as they have really no idea why I keep miscarrying. Very small amount of killer cells, some other minor issues like MTHFR mutation, PAI-1 mutation that are supposedly controlled by my diet/supplements, and hubby's moderate fragmentation are all possibilities, but for the losses to be so identical (five at 4/5 weeks) it just seems like its not 'a few variables coming together' but one big problem that we haven't found yet (science not discovered yet?).

Gah!

 

[Serendipity13]

Hi Aurora,

I can't really help with many of your questions as so far I have 'only' had 2 m/c and am just waiting to be referred now for testing. But I am also really interested in the fact that both of mine happened at an identical early stage (5 weeks) and would be really interested to know if that could be explained by killer cells and/or chromosomal problems... Surely your body has barely recognised it is pregnant by that point??

I have wondered if it's an implantation and/or progesterone problem so until see my consultant I am focusing on trying to treat possible implantation problems naturally (with vitamin B and raspberry leaf tea) as well as starting acupuncture tomorrow. Both my HCG and progesterone was very low this time just before I started bleeding (39 and 3.2) but they didn't know if this was a cause or effect of a non viable pregnancy if that makes sense.

Not sure if that's very helpful response but I find it interesting we are both m/c at the same point on each occasion so wanted to comment... Does anyone else have any knowledge on at what point in pregnancy chromosomal and/or antigens could cause a m/c??

 

[ttc126]

Serendipity, I had been told of your miscarriage happens before 6 weeks it's almost certainly a chromosome problem.

 

[Serendipity13]

Oh that's really interesting, thank you ... I have never heard that before. Can I ask who told you or where did you read that? I'd like to look it up for a bit more info

 

[CrowBaby]

Hi ladies. I am joining now after my second pregnancy loss. I lost my first angel in October of 2015 after 2.5 years of TTC. I got my second BFP just days before my birthday and we were so excited. I didn't feel right last week and went to my OBGYN where I found that our little rainbow's heart beat had stopped, only days after a good ultrasound and heart rate of 136. We are devastated.

 

[ttc126]

That's what my OB (who also does fertility stuff) told me. She thinks we can try progesterone etc but it may not actually do anything. First mc in February my hcg was low at 258 and my progesterone was 1.7. This time first hcg was 44 abs progesterone was 6.7. But she's assured me that it's most likely chromosomal. And she said its not necessarily a problem with someone's egg or sperm it's probably in the way it divides.

 

[ttc126]

I'm so sorry crow baby 😞

 

[Serendipity13]

TTC thanks for the extra info... Is really useful to hear some expert advice while I'm still waiting to be seen...From what you have said it sounds like she is basically saying it's just bad luck and to keep trying... Is that the gist of her advice then? I'm just really interested to know what I can be doing to have a positive impact!