What tests and other investigations did you do after repeated miscarriage?

[A_Fortune]

Hi ladies,

My full story is up in my profile, but in a nutshell, I have been lucky enough to get pregnant following each of my two IVF cycles, however, both ended up in miscarriages. The first at 6 weeks and just now at 9 weeks.

I feel like doctors will just say that it's down to some issue with the embryo's chromosome, age and all the big issues, but no one really looks further into the situation.

I am looking into my thyroid results to see if anything was overlooked (my mom had a lot of thyroid issues and eventually had hers removed) and considering going for a full body test and get anything possible checked (it is pricey though).

Would love to hear about your own testing and research following miscarriage if anyone is happy to share their experience and some advice?

Thanks to you all in advance x

[Tarasunny]

So sorry to hear about your miscarriages. I'm in a similar position. My first 2 transfers ended in miscarriage, after that I had a 0 eggs collected round. Anyway I moved to a new clinic and they recommended a thrombophilia panel which came back mildly positive so was given blood thinners for my next cycles. I haven't managed to get pregnant in my next 2 transfers so can't say it's the magic cure but worth checking out.

[Positive20]

Hi A Fortune

I had repeated failures of IVF and then one miscarriage at 6 weeks. Drs just said it was a chromosome issue with the embryo, embryo was a good grade. Hospital at the early pregnancy unit also just said I was no increase risk it was just one of those things. I had no tests afterwards from the clinic, since then had another transfer that failed however after that then had a successful pregnancy.

[Titawine in reply to Positive20]

Have you done something different in the last transfer ?

[Positive20 in reply to Titawine]

Hi Titawine

So the Dr said I was on the maximum progesterone and oestrogen that they can give. They said they wouldn’t change anything as the build up to the transfer always went how they wanted. Thickness of my lining they wanted at 8mm which it always was, I am a small slim build so they said for my size that was what they wanted in terms of thickness. The only thing on the last go we did was include taking aspirin, the Dr said there was no evidence to support this but we could add it in and try it if I wanted.

Having said that when they scanned my lining it was slightly over 8mm (something like 8.2mm) which to be honest I was personally much happier with. Everything else was the same.

The only other thing I did personally with this transfer that was different was take no time off work (just the day of the transfer and then another random day off because I was going to a concert a few days later). I didn’t rest up the same, went straight from having the transfer to do some Christmas shopping so I was carrying bags to my car. I worked out but lowered the intensity so no jumping or heavy weights.

If I had another transfer I’d do the same personally and not “take it easy” because every previous transfer that’s what I did with loads of rest and time off but it never worked. I’m not advocating this but it’s just what obviously worked for my body. Hope this helps and good luck xxxx

[Hidden]

So sorry for your losses

I had repeat miscarriage bloods that checked for blood clotting issues (7 tests in total). I also had a hysteroscopy and an MRI to check my uterus. Hope this helps x

[Babybaby321]

hi A_Fortune, I’m a IVF newbie but I thought this post was an interesting starting point for investigation. Best wishes

fertilityfriends.co.uk/thre...

[Holiday2023]

I had 7 early miscarriages, all natural. They didn’t do many tests, just checked for thromophilia, my thyroid and karyotyping on the pregnancy contents which showed a chromosomal abnormality. Eventually I decide to do ivf, I was 36 when I first got pregnant and after my 7th pregnancy loss I was almost 40. So I decided to do ivf. I initially tried IUI + TSI, got pregnant again but again another pregnancy loss, then went on to IVF.

I also felt frustrated as they didn’t do many tests and essentially told me it was bad luck and my age. Pregnancy loss isn’t managed well, if I could turn back time I would have gone to see a fertility specialist earlier when I was still in my 30s rather than listening to the nhs doctors who told me to keep trying naturally and it would work one day, which it didn’t. I was being seen at St Mary’s which is meant to be one of the goo RPL clinics but my doctor was useless. So in a nutshell, you are right no one looks into it properly.

[Axel131]

Hi A_Fprtune, I've found Dr Carolyn Ledowsky's work on recurrent miscarriage very interesting. She talks about the MTHFR variant and the role of folate as opposed to folic acid in pregnancies and miscarriage. It might be work having a look up.

[DinaG1971]

Hello I did immune testing such as NK cell levels, and NK activity which was very high I made the treatment and I got the natural pregnancy result without a problem. I hope it works for your. Best wishes!!!

[Strawberry33 in reply to DinaG1971]

Hi, can I ask where you got the NK tests done? Thanks

[DinaG1971 in reply to Strawberry33]

konstantinioncenter.org/en/...

[DinaG1971 in reply to Strawberry33]

Yes we did it below in the link

[Bexarama83]

hey I had 2 miscarriages from 5 transfers and I’m now 19wks with my 6th. They don’t do any tests at my clinic until after 3 miscarriages. I can’t see how old you are but I’m 40 and they said highly likely to be chromosome abnormalities. On my last ec I had 6 eggs collect, pgta tested them all, only 1 normal and 2 mosaic. So they were right in my case. The 1 normal is my current pregnancy 🥰 so it can happen, but highly recommend the pgta testing to narrow down chances of miscarriage. Xxx

[A_Fortune in reply to Bexarama83]

hey Bexarama, thanks for your reply. I’m 39 years old. I’m in Ireland at the moment and I am not sure my clinic does that but I will surely check. Just scared of how expensive the PGTA testing would be. Also, I unusually get 2x 5 day blastocysts from every cycle so… guessing my chances are slim…?

[Bexarama83 in reply to A_Fortune]

yeah it’s not cheap, it was £300 to test each embryo. But it was the best money I’ve spent. I couldn’t have coped worth heartbreak if I were to transfer the 3 abnormal embryos which would more than likely have resulted in miscarriage. You only need 1 normal, and the chances of getting at least 1 aren’t too bad at your age. I’ve got everything crossed for you! xxx

[Fruitandflowers]

I had two early losses which turned out not to have progressed early on, then my daughter, then another loss this year at 9/10 weeks (body didn't recognise it as not viable and had to have it surgically managed). I've tried resting/not resting, changed diet/eaten junk, drank/not drank...had a lot of tests (bloods, thyroid, immune, thrombophilia) and investigations (2x laps and a hysteroscopy) and nothing came back of concern. I thought it was a progesterone issue and I'm sure that's still part of the problem but the extra progesterone didn't stop the last loss. The doctors just say it's a numbers game. The only big difference is all three losses were on fresh transfers whereas my successful one was a FET. So maybe my body isn't recovered on fresh. Going to try a couple more FETs and see whether that theory holds. But if not, it's just being put down to one of those things. It's upsetting and frustrating. x

[A_Fortune]

it sure is upsetting and frustrating MrsOrangeJuice! And heartbreaking too. Thanks for sharing and best of luck to you!