Success after multiple miscarriages?

[gandalf]

I posted on the infertility board and the loss & miscarriage as well, looking for advice......
I have had 3 miscarriages, 1 natural pg, 2 after 2 IVF cycle's. 2 m/c were biochemical, 1 was at 9 weeks-identical twins. I am going on my 3rd IVF cycle and I am nervous, first that it will be a BFN, second that if it is a BFP, it will end in miscarriage again. They have run all if the repeated miscarriage testing on me, everything came back fine. The only thing that did not was the MTHFR gene I tested homozygous for the mutation but I have normal homocysteine levels so it is still a negative for any blood clotting. I am just wondering if anyone has gone thru multiple IVF cycles and had repeated miscarriages and then been successful. I have a normal FSH and have good looking embryos so they think my egg quality should be OK, but they said that I can do PGD to see if I have a lot of poor quality embryos......this might help to make a decision of going to an egg donor if I should have another miscarriage???? I am just looking for any thoughts or advice or success stories of IVF cycles that have resulted in a healthy pregnancy/child after repeated loss.

[Lauren2005]

PLEASE research MTHFR. Having normal homocysteine levels does NOT mean all is well. You'll find so much information about this here on the immune issues board and also on the genetics board. Also, I have a hard time believing that your IVF clinic or regular OB or RE ran a ***full and complete*** immune panel. Please see the sticky at the top of this bulletin board for more information. In your shoes, I wouldn't try again until all testing had been completed. I would also look for a doctor who understands MTHFR better than your present doctor.

Best wishes to you,
Lauren

P.S. Plenty of women have success after multiple m/c's, but not if their issues fundamentally aren't addressed!!! I have great hope for you with proper treatment of your MTHFR and full immune issues diagnosis and treatment.

[Tabithalyn]

Yes gandalf, if you read over at the www.repro-med.net site you will see that having repeated m/c and failed IVF's are a true sign that the woman is likely battling some undetected auto-immune issue. remember, not all docs are great believers in this area, not all docs test for the really specific (ie., DQ Alpha match and LAD test and elevated IgG/IgA levels or test for Natural Killer cells) type of immune tests and certainly there are a limited number of docs who are experienced in prescribing and administering meds along with the appropriate immune protocol that many women need.

Lauren is so right, do check out your options very thoroughly before moving forward into more cycles. It would be much more reassuring for you to get a better opinion and onto some more proactive regime with different meds than to just go again and risk the chance of another m/c. I'm sorry you've gone thru the losses, it is a very hard thing and I think with your record of conceiving it may only take some tweaking with immune meds to have you prg. with a strong prg. in short time but do get into an immune friendly clinic and get more info. on what you may need to help you stay prg.

good luckand ask any more Q's you can think of that would help ok?
Ally

[Ruth41]

lauren is right....as usual!

[DH Lawrence]

Hi there. Just wanted to give you some hope that you can have a successful pregnancy after multiple miscarriages. My wife and I are now 6 mos along with twins after 3 m/cs (1 after IVF and 2 after IUI). However, we did do PGD and are big fans of it if it's financially feasible for you and you have enough fertilzed embryos to work with. (If you're interested, I posted a long thread on our PGD choice/experience you can find on the Genetics board).

In addition, I agree with the others' skepticism that your MTHFR issue has been adequately addressed. I would at least ask for a referral to a hematologist to get a second opinion, and discuss with your doctor the possibility of using heparin as a pre-caution at least until the pregnancy is established. Our m/c tests came back clear except for one borderline result with c-reactive protein, but the hematologist still had my wife take heparin shots for about 6 weeks into the pregnancy until the high risk OB said we were in the clear.

And for what it's worth, my wife's general physician said that she herself had three m/cs for no known reason until her OB put her on heparin, she had two subsequent successful pregnancies.

Good luck to you.

[LynnUS]

Hi,

Yes there is hope!
I was one of those multiple m/c sufferers. I was "unexplained' and all my stims cycles were textbook perfect, yet either failed or ended in m/c. At IVF we retrieved 22 top quality eggs only to end in m/c.
After spending years and countless $$$ bangin my head against the wall I heard about immune tx and had the tests done.
Once I was treated, we were pg on our first cycle.
It was as if a switch had been thrown and I was able to carry a healthy baby to term.
After further immune tx I gave birth to a second healthy baby last year. So yes, I strongly encourage you to do immune testing--there is a reason why you are m/c'ing you just have to find out why.

Best of luck!
Lynn
9yrs ttc#1
4 angels
Madeleine, 5yrs, w/IVIG, LIT, Lovenox, baby asp
3+ yrs ttc#2 w/immune tx
4 more angels
Jillian, 1yr w/Humira, IVIg, LIT, Lovenox, folgard, bab asp
dx: uterine NK's, DQ alpha match, hetero MTHFR