Can a really bad cold/virus cause a miscarriage?

[HeadFairy]

I've just had my second mc in a row. The first one I put down to bad luck, just one of those things, something went wrong at early cell division... usual things. This time I'm hoping that a terrible cold/virus I had over Christmas might have caused it. I had a four week cold, with a temp of 39 for four days right when I ov'd. The rest of the time I had the worst sore throat of my life, then a hacking cough that lasted two weeks. I was dosed up to the eyeballs with paracetamol/benylin/lemsip/strepsils just to get through Christmas. I had an early scan yesterday after I'd had some spotting and the sonographer couldn't see anything in my uterus at all. After I went home I started bleeding heavily and last night I miscarried. I'm thinking the embryo never implanted, but I'm hoping it's because I was so ill and not because my eggs are old and rubbish (I'm 38). Does anyone know if that's possible/likely?

I don't know that stress can't cause a MC - my grandparents' next door neighbour's daughter lost her baby when her father dropped dead of a heart attack at the breakfast table. Maybe that qualifies as shock rather than stress though.

I guess if your blood pressure soared with the stress it can't be good for the baby.

The lovely mw I spoke to this afternoon said the outcome of a pregnancy is determined almost as soon as the egg meets the sperm, barring of course physical interventions like accidents etc. Although I always remember that poor woman Abigail Witchells who was stabbed in the neck when she was out walking with her ds, and weeks after she'd been admitted to hospital and been treated they discovered she was pregnant, and had been 10 weeks pg at the time of the attack. She went on to have a perfectly healthy baby. I have a friend from work who goes to the same physio rehab place as her and still sees her. Sadly she'll be in a wheelchair for life, but it does amaze me that her baby survived such an awful attack.

These messages are so inspiring-it helps to know that there are ppl who are going through the same thing and support each other.

I recently had IVF done (no problems with me but my partner had a low sperm count). Everything was fine until I got a particularly contagious infection that lasted only two days-with projectile vomiting and diarrhea. After the diarrhea I started spotting, then had a m/c 2 days later......was so depressed cause we were trying for two years.

I'm going back for my second try (with frozen blastocyst) in June so hopefully it'll be sucessful.....