Understanding and Preventing Miscarriage and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss

What causes miscarriage and recurrent pregnancy loss? What is the best treatment and what are the controversies in the diagnosing and treating of miscarriage? In this episode, we talked with Dr. Lora Shahine, Reproductive Endocrinologist and Director of the Recurrent Pregnancy Program at Pacific NW Fertility and clinical faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle, and author of the book Not Broken: An Approachable Guide to Miscarriage and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss.

In this episode, we cover:

What is miscarriage? What other names do medical professionals use?
- Does the name change depending upon when in the pregnancy it occurs?
- What is a biochemical pregnancy and is it a “miscarriage”?
- When does miscarriage become “recurrent pregnancy loss”?
- How common are miscarriages? How common is recurrent pregnancy loss?
- Who should you see?
- What is the role of the male in miscarriage and recurrent pregnancy loss?
Common causes and treatment
- What are the common causes for first trimester miscarriage?
- What are the common causes for recurrent pregnancy loss?
- How to diagnosis the cause of recurrent pregnancy loss?
- How to treat/prevent recurrent pregnancy loss?
- What should patients do to reduce their chance of a miscarriage?
Understanding the controversies in treatment of recurrent pregnancy loss.
- Inherited Thrombophilia
- Methylene Tetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR)-how our body processes folate
- Luteal Phase Defect and progesterone treatment
- Infection
- Thyroid
- Immune system & immune treatment for RPL
- Aspirin treatment
- IVF as treatment for recurrent pregnancy loss