Jenna, now a mother of two, says that after reading about miscarriages when she was trying to conceive, she realized that she might have had one in college without realizing what it was. “I never went to a doctor or anything,” she says. “There was just very heavy bleeding when there shouldn’t have been, and it was strangely clotted. It didn’t seem like a big deal.”
Early miscarriage is actually very common. In fact, experts from the University of Maryland Medical Center claim that up to 50 percent of all fertilized eggs die and are lost (aborted) typically before women know they are pregnant.
Seeing your doctor for a suspected miscarriage is recommended, as some women may need further medical treatment, such as a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure to empty the uterus of any remaining fetal or placental tissue.
Many women don’t realize just how common miscarriages are until they have experienced their own and then talk about it with friends and family, only to discover that many of them have had their own miscarriages. This was the case for Sarah, who hadn’t even known her mother had had one until she told her about her own. “It was nice because we could sort of support each other,” she says. “My mom had never talked about hers with anybody.”
While there isn’t any one specific cause for a miscarriage, there are certain medical conditions that can increase a woman’s chance of having one. Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, having the anti-LA antibody, (causing a propensity to clot), polycystic ovarian syndrome, and diabetes can all raise your risk. “Also,” Dr. Innes states, “miscarriages may be caused by anatomical abnormalities of the uterus (bicornuate or septate uterus). Some women have low progesterone levels during the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle and require extra progesterone to support an early pregnancy.”
Age can also play a factor, and, according to experts, “studies show that the risk of miscarriage is 12 percent to 15 percent for women in their twenties and rises to about 25 percent for women at age forty,” explains Dr. Innes.
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