A columnist opens up about her miscarriage experience:
I didn’t know that this could happen to me. I thought I was too young, too healthy. I didn’t realize that up to 25 percent of confirmed pregnancies end in loss. I had never heard of a “missed miscarriage,” which is characterized by a lack of symptoms of a baby’s death. I didn’t have any clue how painful the question, “Do you have any children?” could be to hear and how hard it could be to answer.
“God needed another angel in heaven”; “At least you won’t have to care for a handicapped child”; “You still have time, and at least you know you can get pregnant”; “It happens all the time”; “This baby just wasn’t meant to be.” I’ve heard these phrases dozens of times from well-meaning friends and family, but it’s hard to take comfort in any of them. Nothing can diminish my love for my child, and my heartbreak over what is a unique loss, not a statistic.
I was shocked after we lost our baby that so many women I know shared that they, too, had had a miscarriage—or more than one. Even women who had lost their babies 20 years ago cried with me. Even women across oceans and continents shared my pain through e-mails and online forums.
But why doesn’t anyone talk about it before it happens? Why is there a veil of secrecy behind which we can only share our grief with others who have experienced the same grief? When I found out that our baby was no longer alive, I felt alone in the world. Indeed, there were people who seemed frightened of me, as if I had a contagious disease. And there were others who just never said anything about our baby at all. How was I to realize that a large percentage of women I know had suffered a similar loss? This wouldn’t have made my loss any less devastating, but I think it would have made a difference. It would have helped me to realize that I should not blame myself.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
A few HCG questions
There is a whole lot of info on HCG in early pregnancy out there on the Web, but there are a few specific questions for which I cannot find answers. Perhaps some of y'all know the answers, and can reply in the comments below:
-Should HCG double every 48 hours in early pregnancy? Or is 48-72 hours considered the normal range? Online info seems to vary on this point.
-Are there any studies quantifying miscarriage risk based on HCG levels in early pregnancy?
-Does the day on which the embryo actually implants - which can vary by several days in a cycle - account for the wide variance in starting HCG #s in early pregnancy?
-Does a higher progesterone level offset a lower HCG level in quantifying miscarriage risk? Or vice versa?
-Should HCG double every 48 hours in early pregnancy? Or is 48-72 hours considered the normal range? Online info seems to vary on this point.
-Are there any studies quantifying miscarriage risk based on HCG levels in early pregnancy?
-Does the day on which the embryo actually implants - which can vary by several days in a cycle - account for the wide variance in starting HCG #s in early pregnancy?
-Does a higher progesterone level offset a lower HCG level in quantifying miscarriage risk? Or vice versa?
Monday, February 2, 2009
All about Hughes Syndrome
An interesting article from the UK:
Hughes is a relatively new condition that is just beginning to become recognised by the wider medical community outside the specialised area of auto-immune diseases (in which the body's immune systems attacks itself). The professor first began to note the condition in the mid-Seventies when he was working in a rheumatology clinic in Jamaica. "I noticed there were a whole group of women, paralysed, and forced to use wheelchairs, with the same antibodies in their blood."
When he returned to the UK a few years later, he set up a working party to study the antibodies he had found. Very quickly, his unit had collected up hundreds of patients whose blood carried the antibodies and whose symptoms all resulted from clotting around major organs. "They weren't just suffering clots in their veins but also in their arteries which led to strokes and heart attacks."
Significantly, the clots were also found to have serious effects when they occurred at two particular organs: the placenta and the brain. In the former cases, this led to multiple and unexplained miscarriages. In the latter, they starved the brain of oxygen, leading to migraines, memory loss and what many patients simply described as 'fogginess'.
By 1983, Prof Hughes' team had gathered enough evidence for two papers to be published: one in the British Medical Journal and the other in the Lancet. For the team, this felt like a 'eureka' moment. "We were finally getting our message across. We all celebrated with a long lunch at the local Italian restaurant," says Hughes.
Gynecologists picked up the news fast; the respected royal gynaecologist Dr Anthony Kenny called it the major discovery in obstetrics in the 20th century, and it has revolutionised treatment of women with recurrent miscarriage. Where the antibodies are present, and blood thinners are given, to prevent clotting at the placenta, the rate of successful pregnancy soars from about 20 per cent to 80 per cent.
Hughes is a relatively new condition that is just beginning to become recognised by the wider medical community outside the specialised area of auto-immune diseases (in which the body's immune systems attacks itself). The professor first began to note the condition in the mid-Seventies when he was working in a rheumatology clinic in Jamaica. "I noticed there were a whole group of women, paralysed, and forced to use wheelchairs, with the same antibodies in their blood."
When he returned to the UK a few years later, he set up a working party to study the antibodies he had found. Very quickly, his unit had collected up hundreds of patients whose blood carried the antibodies and whose symptoms all resulted from clotting around major organs. "They weren't just suffering clots in their veins but also in their arteries which led to strokes and heart attacks."
Significantly, the clots were also found to have serious effects when they occurred at two particular organs: the placenta and the brain. In the former cases, this led to multiple and unexplained miscarriages. In the latter, they starved the brain of oxygen, leading to migraines, memory loss and what many patients simply described as 'fogginess'.
By 1983, Prof Hughes' team had gathered enough evidence for two papers to be published: one in the British Medical Journal and the other in the Lancet. For the team, this felt like a 'eureka' moment. "We were finally getting our message across. We all celebrated with a long lunch at the local Italian restaurant," says Hughes.
Gynecologists picked up the news fast; the respected royal gynaecologist Dr Anthony Kenny called it the major discovery in obstetrics in the 20th century, and it has revolutionised treatment of women with recurrent miscarriage. Where the antibodies are present, and blood thinners are given, to prevent clotting at the placenta, the rate of successful pregnancy soars from about 20 per cent to 80 per cent.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The miscarriage mantra: "just try again"
This blogger nails it:
When you can't conceive, there is treatment, but for recurrent unexplained pregnancy loss, there is just keep trying. I'm not entirely convinced infertility treatment will help overcome pregnancy loss. I think it might help you get pregnant quicker and more often and give you a better chance that a pregnancy will take sooner rather then later.
When you can't conceive, there is treatment, but for recurrent unexplained pregnancy loss, there is just keep trying. I'm not entirely convinced infertility treatment will help overcome pregnancy loss. I think it might help you get pregnant quicker and more often and give you a better chance that a pregnancy will take sooner rather then later.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Okay, I am now already officially sick of the two week wait
I'm over this already.
(And embarrassingly, I must admit that I already took a HPT. It was - not surprsingly - quite negative.)
For those of us who have miscarried repeatedly, waiting for the positive test is exciting, but also kind of scary. If we get one this month, I will then have to steel myself for the "Three Month Wait," after which I will no longer live in mortal fear each day that I will lose the baby.
But still, I'd like a positive. My due date would be October 14, which is when my eldest child was due. A good day.
(And embarrassingly, I must admit that I already took a HPT. It was - not surprsingly - quite negative.)
For those of us who have miscarried repeatedly, waiting for the positive test is exciting, but also kind of scary. If we get one this month, I will then have to steel myself for the "Three Month Wait," after which I will no longer live in mortal fear each day that I will lose the baby.
But still, I'd like a positive. My due date would be October 14, which is when my eldest child was due. A good day.
Monday, January 26, 2009
A product recommendation - FertilityFriend.com
After reading Toni Weschler's amazing book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility, I knew I wanted to start following my own body's cycles via Basal Body Temperature charting. But being an online kinda gal, I wanted to find a way to enter my temperatures online, and have them charted via software. Enter Fertility Friend. Somewhat silly name. Great product.
Every morning, I take my temperature, make note of any other fertility signs, and just enter them at the FF site. The software does the rest. It tells me when I ovulated, whether I ovulated, and allows me to follow my cycle through the month with an easy-to-read visual chart. It also allows me to compare my chart to other people's - so I could filter for charts that belong to 41 year old women on clomid, after miscarriage. Then I can see how my chart this month matches up to other people's - particularly folks who actually managed to get pregnant.
If you are trying to get pregnant, I HIGHLY recommend this online tool. It's well worth the $25 or whatever it costs for two or three months of using it.
-Katie
Every morning, I take my temperature, make note of any other fertility signs, and just enter them at the FF site. The software does the rest. It tells me when I ovulated, whether I ovulated, and allows me to follow my cycle through the month with an easy-to-read visual chart. It also allows me to compare my chart to other people's - so I could filter for charts that belong to 41 year old women on clomid, after miscarriage. Then I can see how my chart this month matches up to other people's - particularly folks who actually managed to get pregnant.
If you are trying to get pregnant, I HIGHLY recommend this online tool. It's well worth the $25 or whatever it costs for two or three months of using it.
-Katie
Friday, January 23, 2009
The MTHFR-Miscarriage debate
Does MTHFR in and of itself lead to a higher miscarriage risk? Or is it only when MTHFR actually manifests as higher homocysteine levels that it presents a risk? Here's a clear overview of the current debate on this topic in the medical community.
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