Pregnancy after miscarriage ...

As someone who has suffered a miscarriage I can understand how devestating it is and how as much you know that it's 'just one of those things' and 'nature's way of ending a pregnancy which shouldn't have been', you can't help but feel sad and even guilty.

Yet in some ways I am lucky, I know women who have had 2, 3 or more miscarriages and subsequently find it harder to concieve after each one. So I was really interested to read an article in today's Telegraph online about a woman who has just given birth after 18 miscarriages!!! In short, she eventually found a fertility expert who identified that she had a high number of 'killer cells' normally used to fight infection, but in her case they were 'killing' the foetus too. The treatment was simply a two week course of pills before ovulation and very low cost. She subsequently had a succesful pregnancy and now has a baby girl. Click on the link above to read the full story.

I think this is a great story as it will be inspiring to the many mums to be in the world who are despeartly trying to have a baby after miscarriage. Although miscarriage is very common there is very little investigation done into why it occurs until you have had 3 or more. So for someone like me, even though there might have been a 'cause' for my miscarriage, which could be prevented next time, I was not offered any investigation or explanation. Personally I think an undiagnosed underactive thyroid was the cause ( I found out about my thyroid just before miscarrying and my levels were very hight ) but both my endocrine specialist and gynocologist said this was not the case. How come then according to research, a very large proportion of miscarriages are down to undiagnosed thyroid problems?

Having suffered from both an over active and now under active thyroid during my life, I know from personal experience how important the thyroid is in just normal every day life. The slightest move beyond the normal thyroid levels can lead to your body's funcion becoming completely imparied. Knowing this and knowing that there are many many people walking around with undiagnosed thyroid problems, I find it incredible that thyroid testing is not a standard and routine part of doctors tests both before and during pregnancy and in fact, throughtout life.