Just how "unlucky" is it possible to be?

[Bakingtins]

Today I found out I'm about to have MC no 4. I've had all the tests, there is "nothing wrong with me". Even if you take the MC rate as 25% of pregnancies, that means I have less than a 1 in 250 chance of having 4 MC due purely to bad luck, most authors seem to use a lower figure of 15% of established pregnancies, which makes it 1 in 2000.
How is it possible to be that unlucky? Obviously somebody has to be the "one" but it feels so unfair.

We've both had karyotyping done (sorry forgot that bit). The bloods for clotting etc were sent away to a lab so no, not tested immediately. I was on aspirin this time though, consultant said since there were no obvious issues she'd put me on progesterone, aspirin and high dose folic acid as these can't hurt, might help.

I hate to bang on about nk cells as I realise it's not the answer for everyone although it did turn out to be my answer but definitely get tested if you can. Might be worth sending an email to one of the clinics and seeing what they say. I'm not sure about a timescale for nkc losses but I know of people who have had later losses than 10 weeks and it has been attributed by specialists to nkc. I realise it might not be an exact science though. The midwife at Mr Shehata'a New Life Centre and The Miscarriage Clinic can be very helpful if you want to send an email and enquire. I was on the nhs list to see them at a hospital but in the end I felt I couldn't wait that long and made a private appointment. Even that was a good 6 weeks away from when I made it but luckily I asked about cancellations and there was one that week! Like you I just felt I needed to be doing everything I could and quickly.

I hope it gives you hope to know after my last miscarriage I waited two cycles, tried again on the treatment and was then successfully pregnant with my DS.

Oh the one thing St Mary's did do for me is a TEG test when already pregnant. Apparently it's a clotting test that is different when you're pregnant to when you're not. Best done around 6 weeks. I know of people here on MN who tested positive for it and the course of action has been just o double up on the aspirin and they have then been fine. But personally I would go down the nkc route ASAP - even just to rule it out. Like Iggi has probably told you, there are people who travel internationally to these clinics! Expensive of course though though the treatment itself doesn't cost a lot in the scheme of things. Especially if you usually get pregnant quite easily, which it sounds like you do.

Baking tins, I'm so sorry.

I just had my 4th straight MC too.

There's no getting around how shit it is.

I too have been told that they can't find an underlying cause, seems to be random.

I note what you say about wanting the ERPC so that you can have the genetic testing.

My last one I m/c at home- before I could get an ERPC- (frankness alert-don't read on if don't want to) and I was so upset it started because I really needed to know what that testing would show, so I went to the loo through a sieve and stored all of the bits in a tupperware in the freezer. When I had finished except for spotting and had obviously passed the sac I took the bits in with me and asked for them to be tested.

This went down like a lead balloon at the hospital as you can imagine.

But I was very clearly not going to move until they'd sent it off.

In the end I had to say to the consultant-'look I've pissed through a sieve for 5 days and had to look at all those bits of material, all you have to do is sign a form' but this did get the required result.

So if you can bear to put yourself through it, push hard for testing of this one as it will really help you decide where to go from here in terms of future testing and planning.

I'm so sorry you are going through this.

Sorry to crash Baking but I'm obviously also interested in this so wondered if anyone knew how its possible that you had 2 DCs with no problems and then 4 mc. Can rmc issues suddenly start out of the blue? It seems to happen quite a lot but confuses me!

Sorry for harping on about nkcs again but the theory with those is that previous successful pregnancies can also trigger them.

Petra that sounds awful and such a sad experience to have to go through. I've spent a long and painful few hours on the loo sobbing my heart out when passing a sac before and it's a memory I find very upsetting, so I really feel for you. Despite the fear of the anaesthetic I've found ERPCs much 'easier'. Incidentally the one time I asked for the 'products' to be tested they just ignored me and didn't.

I can't easily link to it but on the conception board there is a thread called TTC or pregnancy on Prednisolone or similar' and that's where a lot of us discuss our immune therapy treatments.

Tea I don't know. MC 1 was in between the 2 boys. DS1 had an uneventful pregnancy (what I'd give for one of those now!) then MC1, DS2 it all felt fairly dodgy, had bleeding between 8-14 weeks but he hung in there, then 3 successive MC so whether there is some issue that's getting worse with subsequent pregnancies?

Petra I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I've been told by the hospital if I start to MC I can be admitted to give them a better chance of getting products to test, but the sieve is a good, if grim, idea. I'm determined to get testing on this embryo one way or the other. I hope your tests yield some useful information for you. Having answers for this would make it much easier to bear.