Recurrent Miscarriage

[julezboo]

Hiya girls,

Im postig this so maybe i can possibly help someone else who has gone through recurrent losses.

I have had 4 mc's since i had my son 4 years ago, all in the last year. Ihad major problems when having my son beacuse of pre ecampsia, or so we thought. All of my mc's since my ds have been before 6 weeks and havnt been able to reach the point where bubs has a heartbeat, I pushed for testing and it has come back that i have something called antiphospholipid syndrome (also known as sticky blood syndrome or hughes syndrome) Some people live a normal life and dont even know they have it. However now they know what it is Im getting help. But i cant bare the thought of anyone else suffering this long to reach this point and someone going through all the heartache we have. Pleas eif you have had 3 or more mc's ask your gp for tests or ask to be referred to someone who can help you. It may not be APS they may not show anything up but it is worth it to put your mind at rest.

I feel more at peace with my losses now i know there was a reason for it. Although a little deflated because my cons has told me they cant help me if i dont reach 6 weeks with a heartbeat, although i have done research and most cons put people on heperin from the day they get a positive so i will be pushing. I hope i can help someone with this post please if you need to ask me questions x x

lots of love

Julie x x

[bundle]

I've a friend who had 3 m/cs, who has now got a dd and a ds, thanks to the daily heparin jabs - i agree, it's hard to get tested/get a positive result (one friend had 12 separate tests before they found anything)

[Nicola63]

Although the research results are not completely clear, going onto heparin and aspirin as soon as you become pregnant is probably a help, and has minimal negative impact, so is worth doing anyway, especially if you have defibitely been diagnosed with APS.

My tests for APS (after 2 m/c's) have not been positive, although I have a slight clotting abnormality and a family history of circulatory problems. So my obstetrician agrees that if I manage to conceive again I will go straight on to heparin. Of course you need to speak to your own doctors, but in my view it is worth doing it anyway.

[RedZuleika]

Hello. Sorry to hear about your losses. However - I think you need to find a new consultant.

Most literature on antiphospholipid antibody syndrome in pregnancy talks about second trimester losses. However - in the British Journal of Haematology, it clearly describes how it affects implantation (something to do with something binding to the trophoblast - I'll see if I can find the reference). If this is the case (which is how it manifested itself for me) then you are going to find it difficult to get to the heartbeat stage because the pregnancy will fail before this. Your consultant should know this. Mine certainly did.

I believe the drug regime is meant to be low dose aspirin from the beginning (I charted in my last pregnancy, so took it from the moment of ovulation) and heparin by injection from six weeks. Any earlier and I believe the heparin can be damaging to the embryo. If I recall correctly, this is detailed on the website of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Although some people have apla syndrome all the time, others (like myself, according to my consultant) only have it during pregnancy. I'm just waiting for test results to come back to verify this. There is some discrepancy in opinion over whether you're meant to test when pregnant, or not pregnant and how many positive tests you should get before you diagnose it.

My consultant was also annoyed that no one had tested me after two miscarriages, as it's so simple to do.

I now have a seven month old daughter after three miscarriages. After doing a lot of reading, I was pretty sure that I had apla syndrome as there are already a lot of autoimmune disorders galloping through my family. I started self-medicating with low dose aspirin before I'd had the diagnosis (feeling that I had nothing to lose at that point) - and as soon as I was pregnant again I got a superspeedy referral to the consultant.

Good luck!

[desperatehousewife]

Thanks for all this info - i have found it really interesting.

I'm at a total loss about what to do or where to go. Have healthy 4 year old boy. Had pre-eclampsia with him and emergency c-section.

Then had stillbirth at 25 weeks in November. Then had missed miscarriage at 16 weeks a couple of weeks ago.

There was no reason found for the death of my son at 25 weeks. I'm terrified they will come back after this post mortem and say exactly the same thing.

Being refered to a miscarriage clinic.