When you were a teenager, you were unexpectedly diagnosed with lupus disease, an auto-immune disorder. Although you spent the next 10 years taking medication and noticing some issues with your joints, your lupus never adversely affected your quality of life, or stopped you from doing the things you had always wanted to do.

That was, until you started to have recurrent miscarriages. After your third miscarriage, your doctor cited your lupus as the culprit.

Although you’d known that lupus was a part of your life for over 10 years, you had never taken the time to research it, or understand how a prothrombotic cause like this could affect pregnancy and trigger a variety of complications. Now that starting a family has become a priority for you, you want to learn more about the prothrombotic causes behind recurrent miscarriage.

Prothrombotic causes can often be behind recurrent miscarriage. If recurrent miscarriage has been a problem for you during your trying to conceive journey, then your doctor might have spoken to you about potential prothrombotic causes. If that is the case, then we know you’ll be wanting to understand as much as possible about this subject matter.

So, here are some of the prothrombotic causes that can be at the bottom of recurrent miscarriage:

Primary antiphospholipid syndrome (PAPS)

Primary antiphospholipid syndrome is a clinical condition that doesn’t always have obvious signs or symptoms. This is why it is sometimes identified by women consulting their doctor after complaining of recurrent episodes of miscarriage. The syndrome itself describes the association between APL and recurrent miscarriages in women who don’t have full-blown SLE. The syndrome itself also includes women who have suffered a single unexplained late miscarriage, very early preterm delivery, severe pre-eclampsia or who have delivered a baby with severe intrauterine growth restriction in previous pregnancies.

Antiphospholipid antibodies (APL)

Antiphospholipid antibody is the name given to a large family of autoantibodies that are associated with the issue of recurrent miscarriages and the development of blood clots. These antibodies can not only affect pregnancy by causing blood clotting in parts of the placenta, but they can also attack the cells of the placenta directly by causing inflammation and turbulent blood flow. This in turn disrupts the implantation process needed to achieve a successful pregnancy. If the woman has symptoms of antiphospholipid antibodies, then she may have evidence of thrombosis, arthritis, skin rashes, migraine, headaches, and occasional epilepsy.

Pregnancy outcome in untreated phospholipid patients

It is important to mention that performing the right tests for APL on all miscarriage patients is extremely important. This is because undetected recurrent miscarriers with APL syndrome don’t have the best possible outcome for future pregnancies.

Steroid treatment

Steroid treatment once became the first line of therapy tried for APL syndrome. Not only were the results disappointing, but the steroids also gave side effects for both mother and baby. These side effects included a higher incidence of pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, and premature delivery. This is why the use of steroids in women with APA syndrome has now been abandoned

A note about APL Syndrome: If you are diagnosed with this syndrome, please do not worry or despair. You and your baby will be very carefully monitored, and your doctors will know what steps to take to ensure the delivery is safe for both you and your baby.

What are the prothrombotic causes behind recurrent miscarriage?

Unii looks at a difficult subject for any parent-to-be.