two early losses in a row and a history of rheumatoid arthritis - some questions

[kalidasa]

Hi all. I've posted on here a couple of times this year as we started ttc at Christmas and I had a chemical pregnancy/very early loss in both January and February (first at about 5 weeks, second only 4+2 or so). I felt ill quickly in both cases, and better almost immediately when the bleeding started, so I think I would have realised what was going on even without the tests (which were faint but positive in both cases).

We've recently moved house and I have a new GP who seems really good. I mentioned this to her and, much to my surprise, she has taken it very seriously and is trying to refer me to a recurrent miscarriage unit even though I've only had two losses (although actually I think it probably happened once before as well, years ago, when I wasn't ttc). This is because I have a history of juvenile and then adult rheumatoid arthritis (from when I was 9). It is now much better than it was, really just my wrists that cause problems, but in the past I was quite disabled by it. She says this history of autoimmune inflammatory disease means I am more than averagely likely to have an autoimmune factor that might be preventing conceptions implanting properly, and if so this may be treatable. She has also sent me to have a whole raft of blood tests which were done earlier this week.

I'm really impressed as I expected to be told it was just 'one of those things' but I'm also a bit worried. On the positive side, she said it was fine to keep trying, and also that it was a good sign that we are obviously fertile (conceiving twice in our first two months trying).

Just wondering if anyone has any relevant experience here? Especially if you also have a link with inflammatory disease of some sort; but also in general I'd like to know a bit more about what it's like to be referred to one of these units. I had to spend a lot of time seeing doctors as a child/young adult and to be honest I really hate hospitals and they make me very anxious so I want to have some sense of what's involved. The doctor said if they won't accept the referral now she will re-refer me immediately if it happens again.

Sorry for long post.

Hi kalidasa. So sorry to hear of your losses and your illness, although glad you've not been so bad with that in recent years. I do have some understanding of what you're going through - my mum had rheumatoid arthritis throughout most of her life. I have also recently had a mmc in my first pregnancy. One of my bad habits ways of dealing with things is to google lots and i found a link between mc and auto-immune deficiency disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. Maybe you will find the following links helpful. I understand they can treat it to reduce the chances of miscarriage so fingers crossed for you. It sounds like you have a fab new doctor.

www.medicinenet.com/antinuclear_antibody/page2.htm
www.prweb.com/releases/2011/2/prweb8138920.htm
www.rialab.com/miscarriages_prevented.php
www.autoimmunebook.com/
www.dralisonhunter.com/immunology.html

I hope to get back to ttc shortly and am praying fthat my mc was just bad luck and I have a better outcome next time.

So sorry to hear about your losses.

Your new GP sounds fantastic. It is a stroke of good fortune that you have managed to register with her. I understand your fears about hospitals, but I would really advise you to go with the referral.

Good luck.

Definitely go with the referral. The blood tests revealed something that could be treated in my case and I have now been able to have a healthy pregnancy at last. There's a lot that they can do for you if they can find a reason for your miscarriages.

Thanks everyone, and especially LittleSpade for the links. The good thing is that we live just a 5-10 minute walk from the Royal Free, which is where the referral would be she said, so at least it's not a huge performance to go there.

I do seem to have struck lucky with the GP, I'd got so used to adequate-but-uninspired ones who don't really think about what you're telling them, whereas the autoimmune issue hadn't really occurred to me but she spotted it immediately.

I'm 31 btw (my dp is 33) so we are keen to start a family but we do have a bit of time if there's stuff that needs sorting out. It felt maybe a bit too early to start trying but now I'm glad that we did.