Women experiencing pregnancy loss can benefit from recurrent miscarriage tests to help determine the cause.
A woman is diagnosed with recurrent miscarriage once she has had three or more consecutive clinical pregnancy losses without a live birth. In couples with this condition, a thorough evaluation through recurrent miscarriage tests will identify a definitive problem in approximately 60% of cases. In the other 40%, we may not be able to identify a specific cause.
Recurrent miscarriage tests may be recommended by your doctor. These tests may include:
- Blood tests to test for hormone problems or PCOS
- Ultrasound of uterus to discover any anatomical issues that may be preventing a normal pregnancy
- Hysteroscopy or HSG (dye test) to look at the uterine cavity (womb)
- Chromosome testing of the husband and wife to test for genetic abnormalities
- Sonohysterography (saline ultrasound)
- Other specific testing for autoimmune problems
If any of the above tests should come back indicating an underlying reason for the problem, then treatment is directed at the cause, such as genetic counseling, removal of fibroids, cervical stitch. If all of the above have been excluded (as they will do in many cases), the diagnosis is recurrent miscarriage of unknown cause.