New test to predict which pregnancies will end in miscarriage

[LAF77]

This research was linked to an article in the Evening Standard. It would be good for us to remove the uncertainty of will I miscarry or not.

Thanks for the link LAF77

hmmmm, cant help thinking that it would be more helpful to find out the causes instead.

"Researchers said the new method could be used to avoid "wasteful and potentially harmful interventions", including unnecessary blood tests, ultrasound scans and hospital admissions for bed rest, in 80% of women."

does this mean they will just tel women they are miscarrying and to go home?

duelling, probably.

Well, it does say the research could be used

"to begin to attempt to rescue pregnancies threatening to miscarry, when, currently, all we can do is fold our hands and hope for the best"

so maybe they are talking about identifying those pregnancies with a real threat of mc, from those who have bleeding that isn't linked to possible mc, and targetting the interventions appropriately. I hope it will work like that, and mean less uncertainty for lots of women.

At least research is being done into this field, and hopefully this might lead in future to discovering the underlying causes.

There is another link to the Irish Herald which has additional information:

By looking at the amount of bleeding and levels of hCG together, researchers created a Pregnancy Viability Index.

*This enabled them to accurately predict a positive outcome in 94pc of the women who did not lose their babies.

They identified a negative outcome in the 77pc of women whose pregnancy ended in miscarriage.

Experts hope their research will eventually enable them to design effective methods to save the lives of numerous unborn children.

Dr Adam's team believes doctors could use the model to spare the vast majority (80pc) of women "wasteful and potentially harmful interventions".*

At least it will give more information. For example, as a recurrent miscarrier, if I knew that my pregnancy was failing, I could insist on ERPC so the embryo could be analysed. I have no idea why I've lost three pregnancies. It could be down to genetic abnormality which would help me cope with the loss a bit better.

That's interesting LAF77, and it does make sense, would be great if they could refine the accuracy even further.

I imagine this is a hard area to research, due to ethical considerations. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if by the time I had my ERPC, my precious baby had gone down the loo.... like you say, if they could identify definite mc's then there may be more women who would choose an ERPC, and therefore more tissue to analyse. I would have been happier (maybe not the right word, but hope you'll see what I mean) if I had felt my loss might help research into the causes of mc.

It might also cut down on the tortuous waiting for a pregnancy to fail, and I think anything that makes it less awful is a good thing.

Sorry to hear you've had this happen 3 times, LAF77. Hope something comes of this, if not for us then other women in years to come.