GynoFiles

Miscarriages, besides being emotionally draining for any couple who have experienced one, are common and often not well understood. Progesterone hormone has to support an early pregnancy. It is the signal for the lining not to shed as it would for a typical menstrual period, and the early progesterone is produced by the corpus luteum of the ovary. Nature has designed this ovarian production as the back up to the placental production of progesterone, and each will help to replace any lack of  progesterone production occurring early in a pregnancy. It's always been thought that very early on in the first days to couple of weeks of pregnancy there just isn't enough placenta to support that uterine lining and prevent it from shedding. The ovary is designed to filling in with some extra progesterone production Yet as the pregnancy progresses, a healthy pregnancy will have a healthy placenta, and it will begin making enough progesterone to support the pregnancy even if the...

Zika, The first year of the epidemic as we understand it so far is summarized in these points. The information physicians are receiving is changing regularly, and it’s important to speak to your own physician about any personal concerns you have.   As of June 2016 over 200 pregnant women in the US have tested positive for the Zika Virus.   Zika is not yet being spread in the continental United States, other than by individuals who have traveled to areas with the Zika virus.   In Brazil, where the epidemic began about a year ago, there have been over 1600 infections. There is no vaccination for the Zika Virus. The Zika virus is mostly spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. We do not have a lot of these mosquitoes in the US, but the few pockets we have are in the very southern parts of our country. These mosquito populations have not been shown to have the disease. There are a few other mosquitoes which can spread the virus if they should become infected, wh...

As medical testing has become more available and accurate we are diagnosing more women with autoimmune diseases one of which is the condition that is called antiphospholipid syndrome.. It is a condition that is known to lead to miscarriages, small babies, the hypertensive disease preeclampsia, stillbirth and preterm birth. The actual cause of pregnancy problems is linked to problems with the placenta and up to 70% of all pregnancies in women with this will miscarry if not treated properly. Women with antiphospholipid syndrome will produce that produce microscopic sized blood clots in the blood vessels of the placenta that in turn produces the pregnancy complications. Having antiphospholipid syndrome also produces risk of blood clots in mom during and after pregnancy and requires treatment in most cases.

Prenatal vitamins are important to begin before pregnancy. Many critical steps in fetal development occur before you even miss a period or get a positive pregnancy test, and its therefore important that you take these vitamins prior to pregnancy.  The two most common neural tube (NTDs) defects in the United State are spina bifida and anencephaly and approximately 4000 pregnancies each year are affected by these serious birth defects. Taking prenatal vitamins with folic acid supplementation prior to getting pregnant can reduce your child's chance of having these birth defect by over 70%, so take at lease 4 mg per day as the critical window of time is very early in pregnancy, in fact there are some creative ways to get the folic acid into your system. Gynos have been telling their patients to take folic acid, not just one dose, but daily, so a new way to get your folic acid in: taking birth control pills! The birth control pills Yasmin an d Yaz have now added folic acid ...

The reasons for miscarriage are many and complex. Early pregnancy miscarriage (defined as before 20 weeks of pregnancy or a fetus weighing less than 500 grams) causes fall into two very broad categories: fetal factors and factors in the mom. Most miscarriages are very early in pregnancy, in the chemical pregnancy stage at which time it cannot be determined. Just over two thirds of all miscarriages are before they are clinically detectable. Overall blood studies of the HCG determines that about 50% of fertilized eggs do not make it to a live birth. The HCG test can determine a lot about the heath of the baby, but it is not a good test to predict miscarriage. yet researchers at the Imperial College London, United Kingdom has determined that low blood levels of the peptide kisspeptin during their first trimester of pregnancy are significantly more likely to miscarry, in their new study shows.Kisspeptin is made by the placenta. The study was presented at  ICE/ENDO 2014 , where ...

If a patient calls and says she has cramping or pain and a positive pregnancy test, we want to see that patient promptly to get a diagnosis of how far pregnant, and then why she is in pain. Early pregnancy tests are so widely available and so accurate, most women today know they are pregnant when hardly a period day has been missed. Due to the fact that women find out they are pregnant so early, it is not uncommon to feel slight cramping in early pregnancy. Cramping or pain with bleeding is a more significant sign of possible miscarriage, but you cannot tell on the amount of bleeding alone. Later in pregnancy the cramping a woman experiences is probably just the on and off contractions called Braxton Hicks contractions and yet they may actually be labor pains. In general women are asked to have a plan as to when to call their physician if they have cramping. Full term is between 259 and 293 days of pregnancy, and the average is 280, in truth the uterus contracts during most of those...

Women get that positive pregnancy test and they want to know so much more! What is my due date, am I having a boy or a girl, am I having twins! And when they have those questions we quote the following odds of twins We have between 100-120 chance of having twins, and naturally triplets occur about 1.7900. Quadruplets once in 370,000...approximately. The studies vary by your age and ethnic background. And what if you live in a little known place the town of Igbo-Ora in Nigeria Africa, called The Land of Twins in a BBC report . There they have about five times the rate of twins, or about 5 out of 100. The Yoruba people there may have a reason for their twinning. The Yoruba's diet is heavy with a type of yam known as the cassava. Although there has been a bit of research into establishing what substance of the yam causes twinning, it's not really confirmed, and other than the obvious health benefits of yams in our diet (lower glycemic index than potatoes) it's probably not go...

She's is the Queen. Literally. She was a queen, a queen of Great Britain and a queen of miscarriages. Well actually she was, Queen ascended to her throne in 1702, at the time she ruled England, Scotland and Ireland, and it was she who untied England and Scotland. Queen Ann's legacy was destined to be historical rather than genetic as her obstetrical history was very poor. We have never established what her medical problems was, perhaps a double uterus, uterine fibroids, infections, or something more complex such as antiphospholipid syndrome, but she never produced an heir although she had many pregnancies. Queen Anne of England had so many miscarriages she would have been labeled a habitual aborter in our time. We label those who have three or more miscarriages a habitual aborter. In truth, they are extremely common in fertile as well as those who never have a birth to term. Actually once you have 2 miscarriages your chance of miscarrying again is roughly 30%. 80% of miscarr...