Testing Miscarried foetus for chromosome abnormalities?

On PCOS, I also have this. It certainly seems a given that there could be/could be more miscarriages. Again, just accepted as fact and the routes to fining an answer are really tricky. 😞

I agree with both of you, Cafe and RedVelvet. It’s not “just a thing that happens”, it’s under-funded and under-researched and that’s why we don’t know. Makes me so cross because it doesn’t need to be that way.

I have had a chronic bone problem since childhood and never, ever have the doctors seeing me shrugged and said “well it’s just a thing that happens” - there are answers, metrics, guidelines; largely thanks to huge amounts of time and money poured into bone and limb problems after WW2. Yet, with women’s health it’s all too often shrugs and mysticism.

I’ve written about this to the MP committee that looked at a child’s first 1000 days (from conception). I’ve also ranted at EPU doctors, who privately agree. They rightly say that this research is picking up, albeit very slowly and more pressure is needed. I even went as far as finding a miscarriage study, getting the study lead to include me and stumbling at the last hurdle of my GP failing to ever send her the right paperwork. 🙄

You can have metformin (and probably others things too) to help support a pregnancy with PCOS. I'm currently pregnant after 2 MCs and have gone private as I refuse to go through it again if I can avoid it before I get any help. I had an online video appointment with a specialist and they prescribed me metformin, clexane (blood thinner), cyclogest (progesterone), prednisolone (immunity suppressant in case of natural killer cells, although during a pandemic is not the best time to be taking this!) and high dose folic acid.

So there are things you can do without having to wait for three x

I've been in your situation, unfortunately you epu told me that no testing was available as "these things just happen"

I was traumatised about having to flush it away as if it was nothing.

As someone who has had six miscarriages interspersed with three full-term pregnancies, had various investigations including genetic testing of one miscarried foetus (it was a chromosome issue that is rare in itself but common among the rare ones iyswim) and karyotyping due to suspicions of a balanced translocation (none found), I think the considering your mother's history it may be worth pushing for investigations - not necessarily testing of the miscarried foetus (because all that tells you is that there was (or wasn't) a chromosome problem present in that particular pregnancy) but certainly an appointment with a geneticist. It never became entirely clear, btw, why I'd had mine - clotting issues were found but this was after I had already had two babies without those being treated, so while they were treated in subsequent pregnancies (with both mc and a live birth as results), the evidence for a 'cause' really wasn't robust. I've found miscarriage to often have a frustrating and upsetting lack of rhyme and reason. After one mc, all other things being equal (and this may be the case despite your mother's history), the chances of the next pregnancy continuing are barely impacted. I'm sorry you went through this and would certainly consider routes to investigations - perhaps talk to your mother first, if you can, about whether she ever gained any information as to why it might have happened to her -, but try not to assume that they will definitely give you definitive answers, nor that this will necessarily happen again and again.

I've checked the national testing directory and it does indeed say 3 consecutive pregnancy losses, but as a geneticist I would say this is not scientifically sound. If there is a familial rearrangement it is quite possible to have normal pregnancies interspersed with chromosomally unbalanced ones.
On the other hand, our local specialist consultant always says a normal result is just as useful to her, as that may indicate a different reason for the recurrent miscarriages, which may have a treatment option, whereas a trisomy just tells you the reason for loss of that particular pregnancy.

So sorry @Cafeaulait27 sending you lots of strength

Really sorry this happened, it is truly shit.

I had a miscarriage at what should have been 10/11 weeks but in reality, I think the fetus had stopped developing a while before that, although I did see the heartbeat on a couple of very early scans.

I'm not in the UK and had a very expensive, fancy OB/GYN who would have known that I would have thrown money at anything she suggested. I asked her if we could do some testing and she was very dismissive of the idea and said it was very sad, but when you thought of all the millions of cell divisions etc that had to happen to grow a healthy baby and realised it could just take one minute thing to throw it all off, the chances were that testing wouldn't reveal anything useful.

I was fortunate to fall pregnant again shortly after and carry to term very uneventfully. I hope the same for you.

I would ask your mother to have her chromosomes checked: she meets the criteria for investigations.

I wonder if that's a location based thing sunshine.

After my miscarriage the other week, I was clearly told any investigation would happen after 3 consecutive miscarriages. As I've had one, then a child, then another miscarriage it wouldn't count as 2 and the counter would be reset.

There's a channel 5 programme on tonight about this. It looks pretty upsetting but sometimes it's good to talk about these things and they may discuss why this can happen.

I'm so sorry. I don't know anything about the specifics of private testing in this circumstance but I had embryos screened, and it's around £3k on top of ivf costs. Of course that's on microscopic samples and I have no idea how it compares to your situation but it could be a lot.
The book It Starts With The Egg has great advice for maximising your egg and sperm health to avoid genetic issues, I'd put your money into supplements and lifestyle changes recommended there.
Good luck

There is no way to be sure without testing cafe, but literature quotes a chromosomal abnormality rate of 50-70% for losses like yours, and mostly those will have arisen spontaneously, ie nothing that you have done or passed on.
I hope this helps. X

Early miscarriages are normal if you mean sadly, common. However often they are not chromosomally normal. This doesn't mean it is due to an issue from one of the parents, just that during the first few cell divisions that something has gone wrong, meaning the baby won't survive past a few weeks of pregnancy.

Sorry I cross posted with your last posts.

The three losses do not have to be consecutive. Recurrent means keeps happening, not necessarily consecutive. It is quite possible to have normal pregnancies but miscarriages before between or after, and you should still be able to have investigations.

Is there a reason you are worried about the possibility of chromosome abnormalities? Early miscarriages are upsetting but they are very normal.

Hope you are feeling ok.