Pregnancy Info HOME

Yes, it is possible for a woman's boday to recognize a developing embryo as a "foreign object". The immune system responds by "attacking" the embryo, ultimately causing complications and potential termination of the pregnancy. This is mostly seen in patients with an ABO compatability issue and also in patients with autoimmune disorders (such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and some cases of type 1 diabetes). Have you had your blood type tested to ensure you do not have an ABO incompatability? If you possess a negative blood type, your healthcare provider will need to address it by giving you an injection called "RhoGAM" in the 28th week of pregnancy.

As far as stress reduction goes...here's a little bit of advice: have sex for fun :-) too many people get hyperfocused on trying to conceive (which causes a lot of stress mom, not to mention pressure on dad), try doing a gentle to moderate exercise regimen...I love the pilates exercise personally, eat a healthy diet and take your prenatal vitamins(believe it or not, eating right and drinking plenty of water really does affect your state of mind) and lastly take time for yourself to relax (take a nice, long soak in the bath a couple of times a week, go for a slow walk, read a book, etc...).

Try not to overthink things too much. This will cause undue stress...and you don't need another dose of that! I recently had my 3rd m/c as well, so I understand just how distressing it is...and honestly need to follow my own advice a little better...lol. I'm working on that though.

I do want to say, I am sorry to hear about your loss. I realize just how hard it is. Men don't quite understand the feelings women experience during a time such as this, so if your hubby (or significant other) doesn't seem supportive, it may just be because he doesn't quite know what to do. As bad as this is going to sound, sometimes men really do need to be told what to do. In saying that, I'm referring to what they need to do in order to support and help you get through it. You shouldn't have to go through this alone...and neither should he. They feel a sense of loss too, but tend to bottle it up, mostly because they don't want to say something that could bring you to tears. They don't know how to handle a woman in tears.

I wish you the best, and I do hope that all goes well with your next pregnancy. Keep us updated on how the progesterone works out for you! ~RobinK

Hi Daynarella, I have been in your shoes - I have had 4 miscarriages myself. The Dr. who finally helped me was recommended to me by my old boss - He and his wife had 3 miscarriages due to immunological issues. She was tested for high levels of Natural Killer Cells. The treatment is controversial, but they decided to go forward with it. As soon as she conceived (via IVF, they had infertility issues as well), they pumped her with blood (like a transfusion) that has been treated so suppress her immune system, called IVIG. She had to do this for 2 weeks until her body was able to fight on it's own. It was physically taxing and expensive, but it worked for her and she had a baby girl.

BUT JUST WHEN YOU ARE FREAKED OUT ABOUT THE WHOLE THING... THERE IS MORE TO THIS STORY!!! The wife had a very gluten/carb heavy diet, and when she breastfed her baby, the baby would break out in hives. The husband knew from when he was in high school that he had a gluten intolerance (symptoms like digestive discomfort, gas, etc) so he always ate a gluten free diet (mainly chicken and veggies). Anyway - It occurred to them maybe the baby also had an allergic reaction... so his wife switched to a gluten free diet as well. As a result, she ended up getting pregnant NATURALLY and carried to term without any issues! They think she might have had a gluten intolerance as well, that's why her immune system was so hyperactive! Apprently, changing her diet alone helped bring her NKC count down!

If this is something you are interested in looking into, I would recommend seeing an acupuncturist who specializes in fertility. I went through 2 failed IVF's myself... gave up and started seeing an acupuncturist, who found I was allergic to soy. I had been a vegetarian eating soy daily for over 10 years. 3 months after I quit soy, I got pregnant on my own! I conceived 4 more times naturally after.

Turns out my miscarriages were due to either a hetero strain of MTHFR (blood clotting) or from a 2.5 cm. fibroid on my uterus. I had the fibroid removed and I started injectable blood thinners. I am now 32 weeks pregnant! I was also on progesterone and steroids for the first 12 weeks, just to cover all my bases.

I hope I was able to help with this story!

Hi daynarella, jademaiden and I would discuss these things to know end, lol and I'm so glad I found this site and was encouraged to research because still to this day I wonder if I had a similar issue. I had 6 first tri losses before getting pregnant with my daughter and half of them were chemical pregnancies and the other half were anywhere from 6-8 weeks. I was put on a high dose of progesterone (I also have the mthfr and did lovenox this last successful pregnancy) and my dr. mentioned how it can work on the immune system. He wasn't ready to put me on the steroids (prednisone I think) but said that if I were to m/c again he would do it the next time. Thank goodness I didn't have to have yet another loss. I also did the acupuncture and I remember the acupuncturist telling me it would take about 3 months to get pregnant, well I fell pregnant like the first month and lost that one pretty quickly but then after almost exactly 3 months of treatment I got pregnant again with my daughter. It think there were several things that played into my situation so that is why i researched so much and basically threw a LOT of treatments at the problem so that hopefully something would work! I couldn't conceive of trying things one at a time and going through any more losses. That is also very interesting about the gluten info jade shared...I'll definitely keep that in mind! I also remember that I put dh on vitamin C supplements (megadosing like 1000mg per day) and a men's multivitamin as I read it was good for sperm. Good luck to you!!!

Jade & Stef - Thank u so much for the info. I'm trying to do the same, as far as taking a variety of crap that hopefully solves my problem. For my next pregnancy, I'll be taking progesterone and baby aspirin ( also have hetero MTHFR) on top of what I already take daily - folgard, extra folic acid, omega 3, and thyroid meds. I read about that prednisone. I don't want to jump the gun so I think I'll wait and see how the next pregnancy goes and if worse comes to worse, give it here! I'm skeptical about the acupuncture plus insurance wouldn't cover it but maybe I will try it. Interesting stuff about the gluten I agree. Congrats on 32 weeks jade - it sounds overdue!
Stef - I also have my dh take a multi-vitamin, vitamin C, B-12, and vitamin E - all supposedly good for sperm!
I'll be ovulating this week so I'm trying to remain hopeful and not so negative, as I have been...

Has anyone heard and dealt with the Alan Beer center for Reproductive Immunology & genetics in Ca. I'm having my MD send tissue to get tested for killer cells and just curious If anyone has gone/been down this road. Any info. would be appreciated.

Hi Lybaum, I looked into this as I found it through my research and it sounded really interesting. Especially that my losses and the path reports sounded very much like a nk cell issue. I thought of contacting them but was worried about the cost. Instead I found a fertility specialist who worked in recurrent loss and he was nearby so when I saw him he talked to me about this some. I believe Alan Beer center does a lot of "controversial" -- and I say that because most doctors would not go to these lengths--treatments like IVIG, etc. There is no proof it works really, but the ones who've done it swear by it. My dr. said he actually participated in doing IVIG therapy on a fellow dr. who had recurrent pregnancy loss. Anyways, long story short he didn't discourage or endorse it. If you've tried every other avenue it may be worth seeing what is up. I truly feel that I might have had some issues with it but as soon as I got to this specialist I got a positive pregnancy test 2 days before the appt. and I carried my daughter to term with blood thinners and progesterone. We started 300mg of prometrium per day and he said that progesterone acts as a natural immunosuppressant so I wonder if that may have helped without me having to do more extreme measures? Not sure but if I ever grow the balls to do pregnancy again I will definitely do the same meds! Good luck to you and please post about your results and what your experience is because it could be helpful to SOOOOO many women on here looking for answers. I know I wished someone had looked into the institute back when I was considering it.

Stefkay: Thanks for responding to my post. I did get registered on the internet Sat. It took over 3 hours and thank God I keep track of everything like I do. My MD has a letter typed out and ready to send this week. What a process. I almost felt like I was run over by a truck the next day.

After 4 miscarriages, I was on Lovenox, baby aspirin, progesterone, AND prednisone (steriod) with my current pregnancy for the first trimester. I was worried about how steriods would effect the baby and I was afraid it was "jumping the gun" but my OB and my RE assured me that it won't. They said anything your body makes naturally - like progesterone and steroids - can't hurt the baby in low doses.

Steroids have been used to treat recurrent miscarriages in the UK for quite some time now, especially for natural killer cells and other immune issues. Try googling "steroids miscarriage UK" You will find several articles about it. I wondered why it has taken dr's in the US so long to use steroids... maybe because medicine in Europe is socialized and IVIG makes more money!?! Steriods are very inexpensive, easy to administer (tiny little pills), and proven to prevent miscarriages due to immune issues.

Anyway - I personally believe it's worth trying before any of the expensive invasive treatments like IVIG and Dr. Beer's protocol.

Lybaum, I meant to add too that I also did the baby aspirin with the lovenox and progesterone as well. My dr. considered prednisone for me but only if I were to lose that pregnancy (which I did not). If I were to have issues again in the future I would request low dose prednisone as well.

jademaiden, I had talked to my MD about prednisone when I talked to him about the killer cells. After 2 chemical pregnancies and 3 m/c's I feel like I'm grasping at strings. I'm 41 and wonder when I'm not going to be able to even try anymore. I'm starting to feel like some of my coworkers don't understand how any of this feels anymore, they use to be pretty supportive at one time. It's like- what happened to the compassion! And yet when I read posts on here It still gives me some hope that yeah maybe something can work. stefkey this last time with being preg. I was taking folgard, baby asa, progesterone, and lovenox. So I guess I just wait to hear from my MD in the next couple weeks.

Hi Lybaum, I totally know what you mean about the lack of compassion. It felt like after my 2nd miscarriage, people were "sick of hearing about it". It's like they just lost sympathy... yet for me, it was feeling even worse with every loss! Even my husband's family had this "when is she going to get over this" or "just deal with it" attitude. It was REALLY difficult to feel like everybody's turned their backs on me. What hurt the most was feeling like even my loved ones had lost hope and faith that this was going to happen to me. I remember starting to get the, "You should start thinking about adoption" speech. What I heard them saying is I needed to just give up. I confronted my sister about it, and she said it was her response to ME saying "I don't know if I can do this again..." BUT what I really needed to hear from her was, "YES YOU CAN!" Not... give up... go adopt. Does that make sense? When you've fallen, you need people to help you back up and to encourage you to keep going.

Anyway - there definitely feels like a statute of limitations for sympathy with recurrent miscarriages and I am so sorry you are going through it!

Early losses are so tricky because they are so hard to diagnose. I was on folgard, baby aspirin, heparin, and progesterone for 3 of my 5 pregnancies, and two ended in losses. I guess if you decide to keep going, you have to try everything you can. I had a 2.5 cm. fibroid on my uterus. It was away from the lining, and 5 fertility specialists told me it wasn't a problem, but I was willing to try anything after my 4th loss. I had the fibroid removed and I took prednisone. I don't know which one made it finally "work".

Have you done a hysteroscopy? The seemingly small fibroid looked like no big deal via saline ultrasound and hystosalpinogram, but the hysteroscopy showed it was distorting my uterus. You just want to make sure you don't have a lining issue either.

It's good you are being proactive and covering all your bases. Something will work, you just have to find the right combination!

Jademaiden: Thanks for your input. Within a couple days after my 2nd D&C, my mom talked to me about adoption. It made me feel like I should just give up right then and there, but I told her that she made it feel like the pregnancy was insignificant. It actually gave me more energy to fight for what I so long for and that is to be a MOM. I know my mom just wants the best for me. I don't know if there is much hope for my coworkers lack of empathy?! I guess what I need to do is just worry about how I am and be thankful there are others on this site that do understand. thankyou from the bottom of my heart!!

stefkay
I was researching all about miscarriages and differnt options I could do and I ran across this discussion. I have had 7 miscarriages and the sixth one we heard the heartbeat and the 7th one we seen it and then it just stops. The chromosomes were normal on the 6th one and we are waiting (2 weeks) to hear how the other one turns out. ON most of the pregnancies I had been taking progesterone and a baby aspirin and folic acid. I have the homozygous for MTHFR factor. The last pregnancy I was taking lovenox shots daily. (30 mg) I don't know what to do anymore but I was considering asking my doctor about prednisone. I read that is has helped others and I know someone that has to do it everytime she is pregnant. If you could write back. I know that these were posted in March but hoping to hear something encouraging from someone...It is EXTREMLY easy to get pregnant for us. We don't really even try. My heart aches for everyone writing on here b/c more than likely everyone is struggling with recurrent loses!

tknueven: I miscarried my last time while taking folgard, lovenox 40 mg daily, baby aspirin and progesterone. I did go through the Alan Beer center in CA to get checked for Killer cells. I had wondered about taking prednisone also until I received my lab results. I found for myself It isn't just cut and dry and take some prednisone. My T-cells and B-cells were really low 9.1 and 19.1. Optimal is over 50 and needed to help protect a fetus and help the placenta grow. Treatment for this is called a LIT (leukocyte immunization transfer)procedure. You use a blood donor's leukocytes and they inject them under your skin. FDA banned US from doing the procedure- said it was to closely related to a stem cell transplant but actually has nothing to do with stem cells. So a person has to go to Mexico to have it done. I also found out I have a second type of clotting problem other than Homo for MTHFR so it was recommended for me to use lovenox twice a day. I'm 41 and with having had 5 m/c's I felt I needed to get a full picture. Fortunately not everyone has to do that. I'm sorry for your losses. There is a lot of useful information and support on this message board.

Hi tknueven, I did not do prednisone, but jademaiden did. I keep in touch with her so I will write her and ask her to come here and give you some info. What kind of progesterone were you on and how much? I found that higher doses may help in both the hormonal and immune issues. at least 200mg per day and inserted vaginally (taking orally is basically useless). Also I'd try again because even though you were doing everything with the treatments, something else could have gone wrong. Also the specialist I saw explained to me that many women with "recurrent pregnancy loss" DO get pregnant easily (too easily) and that is why they seem to miscarry more. We got pregnant each time in the first 1-3 months trying. It was ridiculous!!!

Lybaum, I'm so interested to hear about your experience with dr. beers institute. So are you doing the LIT treatments? Did they find the other clotting disorder and what is it? Did your regular doctors miss that? I always wonder about "other " disorders and undetected ones as well. I figure there is so much out there that drs don't know about yet that I wanted to be on the lovenox regardless to cover my bases. Did you ever have any testing done for egg quality, etc? I'm sure you've had an FSH test done, correct?

Stefkay: I'm going down to Mexico on July 17 to do the LIT procedure. Dr. Trobough wants me to go 2 times to do this. The other clotting problem I have is called Heterozygous for 4G/5G deletion/insertion allele. I would have to use lovenox 40 mg twice a day and baby asa daily. He also talked about the possibility of prednisone and immunoglobulin infusions for killer cells. With the labs I had drawn I also found out I have some insulin resistance and started on metformin. It was fortunate that I found this out as diabetes runs on my mom's side of the family. Some of the tests I still don't quite understand yet. As far as FSH testing and thyroid tests I have had these drawn every year for the last 6 years for a pituitary tumor and they have been fine. Every time I have had a m/c My intuiition has been right on with problems I have come across.