So if you have been throuhg this kind of loss and you're afraid it may occur again, learning about the causes of miscarriages will help you avoid them and have a safe pregnancy that will bring to your family a beautiful and healthy baby.
These are the 3 Most Common Causes of Miscarriages:
Genetic Causes
Genetic causes of miscarriages usually happen because of an advanced maternal age. The reason of this is that, as you age, your body starts to deteriorate; and after 35, your eggs start to "loose their freshness" and develop genetic issues, so try to keep in mind the relashionship between age and fertility when evaluating your conception plan.
If the miscarriage occurs before the 12th week of pregnancy, chances are there is a genetic cause behind it. An additional characteristic of genetic causes of miscarriages is that it is usually a unique event. This indicate that if you had a second or a third miscarriage, chances are it's NOT because of a genetic problem.
However, if you are trying to get pregnant and you are over 40, it is strongly recommended that you consider the possibility of looking for a donor of eggs.
The baby will still be developed in your womb, but you will be using "borrowed" eggs that have less probabilities of having a genetic damage.
Physical Causes
The physical causes of miscarriages are mainly related to 2 parts of your body involved with reproduction. Your uterus and cervix.
The uterus is commonly known as the womb, and its job is to develop and hold the baby while it grows inside of you. The cervix is a muscle in the lower part of the uterus that mantains the baby in its place until the moment of birth comes.
The causes of miscarriages related to the uterus are:
- Malformations in the uterus:
Most common are "Septate uterus" or "Two horn uterus".
What they cause is that the space inside your womb gets split or reduced by strings of tissue, affecting the full growth of the embryo because it doesn't have enough space to develop the way it's supposed to.
- Malformations in the cervix:
Incomplete cervix
Think of the cervix as the door to the uterus. If you happen to have an incomplete cervix, when the embryo has reached certain weight, it will start pushing against it, and if the cervix doesn't have the capacity to hold it, this could very easily lead to a miscarriage.
abnormalities are causes of miscarriages that are difficult to deal with. Nonetheles, they can be fixed using surgical procedures.
To determine if you could have any of these internal issues, you should see your gynecologist or fertility endocrinologist to do an ultrasound. This is usually enough to find out, however, if the ultrasound results are not very clear, the next process would be to do a Laparoscopy, which is a minor surgery that allows the doctor to look inside your uterus.
Hormonal Causes
Hormones are the chemicals produced by your brain to give signals to all the organs of your body. Progesterone is the most essential hormone in charge of all your reproductive functions.
Hormonal causes of miscarriages happen when the production of Progesterone falls out of balance and starts affecting the way your body handles pregnancy, including your menstrual cycle and the inner lining of your uterus.
The main cause of hormonal miscarriages is a disease called Polycistic Ovaries Syndrom (PCOS), which produces a great number of masculine hormones (testosterone) and less amount of feminine hormones (progesterone).
Some of the symptoms of PCOS are
-High blood pressure
-Growth of unwanted body hair
-Oily skin
-Dandruff
-The absence of your period or too much irregularity on it
To reduce your chances of miscarriages when conceiving with Polycystic Ovaries, you should follow a treatment with a fertility specialist or a qualified gynecologist.
These treatments commonly consist on the prescription of substances to stabilize your hormonal production; such as a very popular fertility drug called Clomid, a healthy diet and exercise routines.
These are the most important causes of miscarriages you must be aware of to boost your opportunities of getting a safe pregnancy and giving birth to a healthy baby.
