Two chromosomal miscarriages in a row - success?

[Effie96]

Hi, I'm looking for some success stories after two miscarriages. I miscarried my first at 12 weeks in January. Karotyping results showed she had full nondisjunctional (random and non hereditary) trisomy 18 (edwards)

Got pregnant again two cycles later and I lost him at 13 weeks. He also had full nondisjunctional trisomy 18.

Both our bloods and genetics/chromosome karotyping showed neither of us carry anything. All my scans have shown I have lots of active eggs. The fetal medicine consultant has said it was the same chromosomal abnormality twice simply because most miscarriages are chromosomal, and edwards is the most common one to cause miscarriages.

Despite all our positive results; I feel so downhearted about two losses in a row. I'm 26 and trying for my first.

Would appreciate any similar stories or success after two or more miscarriages? Definitely needing hope or to feel a bit more like I'm normal

Thank you x

Hi - I don't have a good story for you I'm afraid as I've just had my 2nd (and where I am you don't get testing for everything until after 3 losses in a row). But wanted to say I understand where you're at, 2 miscarriages in a row is sadly still relatively common (think it's around 5 out of 100 women) l, and as you've been told chromosome abnormalities are the most common cause of miscarriage. It's good that you have lots of eggs and that you and your partner's tests didn't show anything out of the ordinary. Really hope you get your 🌈 baby soon x

Sorry to hear this. I had my first at 30, all fine and no issues and assumed conceiving again would be easy. What then followed was six miscarriages, one was late at 16 weeks and that was trisomy 18, and they assume the other 5 earlier losses were also chromosomal. We had tests and nothing conclusive regarding carrying genetic issues. I was lucky enough to then conceive a very healthy girl at 35 who is now 7 with no intervention so we didn't go any further with investigation.

So sorry that you are currently going through this, but as I'm sure your doctors have told you, there's every chance that you will have a successful pregnancy next time. Like you I was fairly young when we started trying for a baby. I was beginning to despair after three miscarriages and then four or five months of amenorrhoea. We started looking into adoption and I was taking all kinds of supplements. But I was already pregnant with my first DC before the previous pregnancy would have reached term. I ended up with four amazing children, although I had another distressing miscarriage later and had some bleeding in every pregnancy. It's tough, but not an uncommon experience. Some of us are just unlucky and go through the mill while others seem to have no problems or heartbreak along the way. Stay strong and be glad they are now taking recurrent miscarriage a lot more seriously than they used to. Early pregnancy care is so much better now than in the past.

This sounds like such bad heartbreakingly bad luck. There is no reason to think you won't get your rainbow baby soon. If you can afford it do the harmony test as soon as possibly for reassurance xx

I work in Fetal Medicine, never experienced this personally but have worked with a lot of patients who have gone on to have a successful pregnancy. Recently, a patient who I've seen 16 times over the last 10 years with miscarriages and medically terminates pregnancies finally got to go home with her baby. I cried like an absolute dickhead watching her walk out with that little one. Literally sobbed for half an hour, happy tears (I was 32 weeks pregnant myself at that point too so very hormonal). There is hope OP.

Thank you all! I'm so sorry to hear about your losses! You've definitely offered some reassurance that it's relatively common and hopefully a healthy baby will be on its way to me soon!

I'm so sorry you are going through this OP and sorry for your losses. The good thing is that you are younger than I was. I'm not discounting your losses BTW. I lost 3 in my 30's due to different genetic issues- trisomy 13 (patau) monosomy 22 and another syndrome . No fertility issues found, karyotyping on DH and myself completely normal and the only thing they said was it was due to my 'old eggs'! 😧This was despite me having a higher AMA (egg count) for my age than average. Lots of 'old' eggs apparently!

Have you read the book 'It starts with an egg'? I'm not saying you can change the outcome, but its worth getting a 2nd hand copy from ebay for a read. I do wonder whether modern plastics, tins, processing etc has an effect on our bodies more than we realise.

DH's sperm count was at the lower end of normal. He started taking lycopene supplements. Its found naturally in tomatoes and other red fruit/veg. There isn't a lot of data, but some studies have show an increase in motility and count after 3mths of taking it. I figured it wouldn't hurt! I asked the fertility consultant about such supplements and she said that unless they were prohibitively expensive, they might help.

If this happens again, I would think you'd qualify for PGT testing on the embryos if you did IVF. I'm not sure of the criteria if neither you nor partner are carriers, but worth being aware of the testing if needed.

Are you in the UK OP? Sorry if TMI, but if you did MC a 3rd pregnancy, they should test this pregnancy also for a genetic screen. I carried a sterile urine pot with me and took the products to the EPU who organised the testing.

Unfortunately we just had the 3 losses, no children, but that is rare. Remember OP, that this is not your fault, you did nothing wrong and you aren't alone ❤

You might find ARC a helpful resource too:
Antenatal Results and Choices (ARC) – non-directive information and support before, during and after antenatal screening (arc-uk.org)

I had three miscarriages in a row. I know that the last miscarriage was due to a chromosomal issue, because tests were carried out. I also know that the first was likely to have been caused by a chromosomal issue, as it was a missed miscarriage and the person who carried out the scan described a detail, which I later found out was associated with this.

We were both tested after the third miscarriage and as neither of us were shown to be carrying any chromosomal issues, we were told that the miscarriages were random events. My next pregnancy resulted in the birth of a healthy baby.

I was told by the hospital that it was likely that I would have a successful pregnancy, but as I felt so hopeless, I couldn't believe this. There is a book by Professor Lesley Regan entitled Miscarriage, which I would absolutely recommend. It contains data on the chances of a successful pregnancy after one or several miscarriages and it does support what I was told at the time.

Wishing you and your partner every success for the future.