Sunday 22 December 2013

Thrombophelia the culprit behind miscarriage!

Thrombophelia the culprit behind miscarriage!

Human reproduction system is a sequence of surprises. The successful pregnancy is a miracle against hundreds of odds. As an infertility expert, I always believe that it is a roller-coaster ride with various ups and downs. The peak fertility years between 20 to 30 years of age have greater chances of success. As the age progresses, we have feeble chances of pregnancy. Even during the peak years we experience as high as 15% cases of miscarriages due to various reasons. The percentage rises up to 50% in the old age women.

In many cases, pregnancies terminate at so early stage that we do not know about it. It is typically called a biochemical pregnancy. As the pregnancy proceeds further, the rate of miscarriage drops significantly. However, the same is not true in case of women more than 40 years of age. Abortion is the technical term for any kind of miscarriage, either induced or spontaneous. However, miscarriage is more common term for spontaneous abortions. We have to deal with a large number of abortions as an infertility expert, in fact more than successful pregnancies!

It is important to note that recurrent miscarriages need to be handled with additional care. We infertility experts work out every possible step to prevent reoccurrence of the same.

We can classify recurrent pregnancy loss into several categories, e.g. genetic, anatomic, hormonal, infectious and Thrombophelia, etc. In case of genetic category, the female inherits the tendency of termination of pregnancy. There is no apparent cause of it, but the pregnancy can’t survive more than a few weeks. In case of anatomic cases, the female reproductive system has structural failures causing abnormal termination. In the hormonal cases, the hormonal combination gets disturbed in the body causing a tendency of miscarriage.

Thrombophelia, a major cause of miscarriage

Out of the total cases of abortion, a major chunk is due to Thrombophelia. It is a peculiar case of blood clot that causes pregnancy loss. Bleeding and blood clotting is a delicate process peculiar to the humans.

Clotting is the reflex action against excessive bleeding. In case of genetic disorders like hemophilia, the clotting process does not happen resulting in excessive bleeding. In the same way, some people have a tendency of excessive blood clotting resulting in pregnancy loss and intrauterine fetal demise or intrauterine growth retardation. There are multiple causes and treatments of Thrombophelia.

It is a fact that if a patient has no other apparent causes of miscarriage, then it is high probability that Thrombophelia is the culprit. It is important to evaluate the presence of the same and treat it accordingly. Usually the success rate is very high (almost 90%) and the side-effects are minimal. With the correct diagnosis and perfect medication, the problem can be controlled up to a large extent.

Recurrent miscarriage is a traumatic experience for the couples, especially the mothers. We have to keep a close monitoring on the mental and emotional status of the patients while treating the physiological aspects of the problem.

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