Miscarriage risk rises by 32% for women taking pre conception vitamins

[Armadale]

I am bloody speechless!

An article posted in the International Journal of Epidemiology (published online on 21st Jan - link here but behind a paywall, unfortunately). I have also found a cod science summary in the daily mail here, (which generally means the daily telegraph will cover it tomorrow).

reports that a Danish study looking at 35,000 women found that the rate of miscarriage in the first trimester was 32% higher for women who took a multivitamin supplement daily for six weeks prior to conception compared to women who did not take one.

The IJE is a hugely respected journal published by Oxford and this study has a huge cohort which increases its reliability further.

The study notes that researchers are concerned that if the general public become aware of this study then it might cause women to stop taking a folate supplement before conception which would increase the risk of birth defects....How stupid do they think women are????

Do they really think we aren't capable of understanding 'research has shown that taking an isolated folate supplement why trying to conceive is important, but a multivitamin should not be taken'

So thanks for that, you companies that have been selling me preconception vitamins, based on my fear I might have another miscarriage and your promises that your vitamins will help me. I hope you are made to refund every penny you have taken from women trying to conceive.

Thanks for that all you 'lifestyle' type pregnancy advisors who I'd better not name who suggest taking these as a way of preparing my body for pregnancy, I hope you feel proud of yourselves.

Thanks for that, international scientists who have concluded it might be better not to tell us the truth about the risk in case we are too thick to realise we can take folic acid on its own.

The idea that I miscarried and then took these vitamins with the promise it would stop it happening again but they caused it to happen again is beyond my comprehension.

I am so angry.

(I have posted this in MC rather than PG as I don't want to freak anyone out who is currently pregnant btw, think it might be better if it is not linked in the pregnancy topic..)

Without sight of the paper itself, it's not possible to interpret these findings (and I have zero faith in DM's ability to report a scientific paper accurately).

What are the actual numbers of MC (say per 1000 women) with/without vitamins? Are all the vitamin formulations similar? Did they look at the reasons why the vitamin-taking women were taking them?

Have they checked the reasons these women are taking supplements?

For example: low vitamin B = low progesterone = miscarriage risk. Women who are/feel more at risk will tend to take these tablets in the first place, therefore may well be more likely to MC anyway.

Supplements vary wildly too.

Having a diagnosed condition causing my multiple losses, I have had advice about supplements from leading researching medics. This kind of survey DOES scare women and some might well stop taking folic acid - not only that but % of raised risk is hard to judge for those not used to statistics. 32% for example ... 32% of what ... miscarriages, miscarriages with no genetic fault, miscarriages with no explanation at all, miscarriages in the 40+ bracket... all those things mess with the stats. And none mean 32% of early pregancies (an analagy would be my condition, which affects 15% of recurrent miscarriers... or 15% of 1%, or 0.15% of the population NOT 15%). To a frightened pregnant woman they'll see 32% and not the clinical percentages.

is it possible that mixing races can cause miscarriage?
I have been pregnant to a half Jamaican man twice in my life, both times I felt shocking, really ill and unable to leave my bed, and had miscarriage.

I have had two children in between (18 years since the first miscarriage) with no problems whatsoever. Could it be that I am simply not compatible with this one man? or is it because mixing the races in some people is not possible?

Sorry, the two children in between were to a white man.

The thing is OP, it is research. No-one has studied any association between prenatal vitamins and mc in enough detail to say they're safe or not. I may be able to get a copy to have a look at tomorrow, but I will say that Lucilla Poston, who wrote the linked commentary article (vs. the original research) is a highly respected obstetric consultant. I have a lot of faith in her opinion.
kim, you may want to start a new thread for your question, I don't know if there is any link between parental ethnicity and mc.

This is a newspaper article about research too from 2011, it says women taking vitamins are mre likely to conceive and still be pregnant a 3 months than those who didn't.

But again, that's a newspaper report of a research paper. And the British press really isn't very good at this.

In neither report does it describe the actual methods/results, nor state if the headline figures are statistically significant.

Thought long and hard about whether to post this but I think I have to say it.

Not posting this in pregnancy out of kindness is one thing.

But posting it in the miscarriage forums, where women go just after they've lost a pregnancy (with burdens of fear, sadness and guilt) could cause real psychological distress. I know what caused my losses (not vitamins) but I did take pregnacare and can just imagine how I would feel if I stumbled across this at the wrong time last year.

The miscarriage association has some very wise advice about how to talk/write to/about women who have recently had a loss. 'Reasons' (if one is not a medic) is something of a risky area.

Perhaps this kind of debate belongs more in conception forums, for people to decide before.

Are women taking vitamins likely to be older or perhaps in families where there is a history of pregnancy loss so trying to be extra careful? There are lots of factors that may or may not be involved.

Oddboots exactly what I was thinking. If you're not feeling 100% you're more likely to take the vitamins- age, nutrition, any illness over the last year etc'.
The blase list the Mail gave of things they 'ruled out' was interesting considering world experts such as those at St Mary's and Prf Quenby would say they are grey areas...