Recurrent miscarriages - specialist advice

[HappyHaggis]

Hi all. First time posting on here. I had one healthy child 2.5 years ago but have since had 3 miscarriages over the last 18 months. Will go down the testing route and health over through work will hopefully pay for testing. Can anyone recommend any consultants in London or Herts, please? The whole process is heartbreaking. Sending supportive vibes to anyone else going through it. Thank you 🙏

Hello Haggis,
Sorry you're going through this.
I'm also in Herts - feel free to pm me.
I have a 3 year old and had 3 consecutive miscarriages between 2015-2016.
Being a bit bloody minded, I was reluctant to spend our precious savings on testing, when it all seemed so arbitrary.
I did go to implantation clinic at Coventry in between my referral to recurrent m/c clinic and waiting for an appointment. All their testing/biopsy came back normal. It was £360. I saw Prof Bronsens and it was an easy drive from Herts.
Recurrent m/c specialist testing through NHS also all clear, no clotting disorders/thyroid etc fine. I saw Miss Awala at Watford General.
I then deliberated about seeing Mr Shehata, but decided to give the treatment plan from Miss Awala (who is also head of EPU) a try. She recommended progesterone from bfp, early scan to determine heartbeat, then Clexane injections from this point (just over 6w in my case) until 34w.
I luckily got pregnant again on our 3rd month of trying. So far, the Clexane has worked for me and I'm 22w.
Clearly I'm not celebrating yet, but am cautiously optimistic.
I hope sharing my story will help you in some way. All my m/c were missed and the embryo died around 8w, with bleeding beginning at 9 to 11 weeks. I had 2 ERPCs in 4 months. I'm late 30s. It's so rough, sending you

You could ask your GP to refer you to the recurrent MC clinic at St Mary's in Paddington?

on all the threads i have read dr shehata is repeatedly mentioned.

i have had 2 mmcs and a 27wk stillbirth but my hospital aren't testing me as i am not typical of someone who has an issue.

after all the recent news i am thinking of self medicating with vitamin b3 and b12. both have recently been in the press. alongside this i will be on 5mg folic acid and baby aspirin as advised after stillbirth.

I'm really sorry for your losses. I've also had three miscarriages (all early and natural, though most recent was MMC) and have done exactly same as Lost and gone for NK cell testing at Coventry while waiting for NHS testing/results. Currently waiting on results of all of that. I was also reluctant to go too far down a private testing route - it gets astonishingly expensive fast, and I also have doubts about some techniques such as intralipids, although you get women who absolutely swear by it.

Raj Rai at St Mary's, London.

Lost your treatment is similar to the one I got from Coventry.

I did progesterone from CD21 then early scan then clexane until 12/13 weeks... my 2.5 yo is a Coventry baby...

I saw Raj Rai as well first before my first daughter but they didn't prescribe anything just scanned me at 6, 8 and 10 weeks and by luck all was fine with that one...

St Mary's have a very detailed questionnaire / approach and were thorough IME.

I disagree with a PP warning against private tests. The reputable doctors only recommend necessary tests. Unless you need invasive tests, eg hysteroscopy, the costliest are the genetic tests (both partners), which when we had them were standard in NHS mc clinics. There are some additional "hidden" costs, eg for blood tests there's a charge for phlebotomists' time.

Some specialists don't agree with the "natural killer cells" theory (Dr shehata's main thing) and other immune-system based theories. So worth reading up on those and considering your personal views.

Another well known UK specialist is Prof Siobhan Quenby, think she's midlands based (Coventry?)

Tiny TEar, I had similar treatment from St Mary's and have a DD too

Loopy i had 3 mcs before St Mary's and all those tests were normal... then had DD1... then 2 more mcs and then I went to Coventry (Prof Quenby's clinic, saw Jan Brosens) and ended with DD2

I consider myself one of the lucky ones as I did have my girls...

Me too TinyTear, have been v v lucky. Best wishes to OP and others going through this.