Habitual abortion

From ArticleWorld

In medical terminology, the condition of habitual abortion is known as “recurrent pregnancy loss” or RPL. When a woman becomes pregnant three times consecutively and then experiences a spontaneous abortion or pregnancy loss before 20 weeks gestation each time, she is considered to have RPL. Only about 0.3% of women are afflicted with this condition.

Causes

There are several reasons why a woman might suffer from recurrent pregnancy loss:

• Sometimes a woman has an abnormally shaped uterus because of an error in uterine development. In the majority of these cases, the uterus contains a septum, or separation down the middle of the uterus. The embryo may implant but fail to grow and develop properly under these conditions.

• Other women can have uterine fibroids (or leiomyomata) which are benign tumors that may affect the uterine cavity and inhibit embryonic attachment or development. If the pregnancies are lost after 12 weeks, it’s possible that a woman has RPL as a result of a weak or “incompetent” cervix. The cervix gives in to the weight of the uterine contents and can’t keep the pregnancy within the uterus.

• Some women have genetic abnormalities that cause a predisposition toward excessive blood clotting. Approximately 15% of those who have RPL have this condition, also called thrombophilia, as the cause. Genetic conditions that lead to repetitive chromosome abnormalities in the fetus will often result in RPL.

• Endocrine disorders, such as thyroid conditions or poorly-controlled diabetes, are a common cause of RPL. If these conditions are treated carefully before a woman becomes pregnant, her ability to carry a pregnancy to term often improves.

• More rarely, immune conditions can become a cause of recurrent pregnancy loss. Generally speaking, the conditions of the placenta and the reproductive process allow a woman to carry inside her body something that is genetically different from herself without seeing it as a “foreign agent”—something that triggers an immune response by the host. In some women, an immune response can be generated against the embryo, especially against the placenta, resulting in a recurrent pregnancy loss.

• Advanced maternal age or, more specifically, advanced ovarian age is known to result in the production of less-than-perfect ova that carry a higher risk of miscarriage than in younger females. As couples continue the trend toward starting families at a later age, the occurrence of RPL because of advanced ovarian age is likely to increase.