After miscarriage many couples want to get pregnant again. About half of all the miscarriages are due to chromosome problems in that egg. These problems are not likely to persist. The next most common reason for a miscarriage is that the implantation spot was poor, but it might have only been poor in that one cycle. Other correctable, or non-recurring, reasons for miscarriage are smoking, extremely thin or being obese, consuming too much alcohol, having used medication that could cause a miscarriage or being in a prior accident. The question then becomes: how soon can a couple safely try for another pregnancy?
After you miscarry you can ovulate as soon as 2 weeks. So the decision to contracept for a bit or to begin trying again if you were trying for pregnancy is an important one. The WHO has recommended waiting 6 months. Other organizations have focused on birth spacing mostly after full term births or after births in third world countries. The WHO information was based on one study that was done in Latin America. Now there was a new study out of Scotland looking at over 30,000 women with their first miscarriage, during the second pregnancy over a twenty year period of time. And over 40% got pregnant within those first 6 months and actually getting pregnant within those first 6 months was better than waiting longer in terms of healthy pregnancy outcomes. So we are telling women they need not delay as long. Now if you became very anemic, or have other medical conditions to correct, or have emotional reasons you need to slow down, those are reasons to sit and gab with your gyno and figure out how long, what nutritional changes, and what other medical tests to do before launching out on your own. And if you didn't have a pre-pregnancy planning visit with your gyno, even if you are healthy, you may want to schedule that visit. At Women's Health Practice we also offer genetic testing for couples with problems of miscarriage, infertility or a history of birth defects. And after pregnancy is achieved again there are now arrays of tests that can test for the genetic health of the baby. Once you do get pregnant again, if you are 35 years old, or younger, and there is a fetus with a heart beat seen on ultrasound, the risk of miscarriage will be less than 5%.
This is my second miscarriage in 12 months, the first time we got pregnant we werent trying... now 11 months later when we decided to try to conceive we got pregnant and then in my 6th week i started to miscarry. how likely is it that i will continue to have miscarriages? I am 22 years old and have always been healthy, and a healthy weight...
ReplyDeleteWhen a woman has a second miscarriage, it is important for her obstetrician to evaluate to see if there are obvious medical factors that are going to make the miscarriages occur again. For most women the risk of a miscarriage before a first pregnancy is 1/6, after a first miscarriage is 1/6 and after a second miscarriage it is 1/6. Eventually the risks become greater, and after 3rd miscarriage the risks are great enough to make special testing wise before undertaking a new pregnancy.
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