6 Common Causes of Miscarriages
I know that miscarriage is a very emotionally charged subject, but this post is meant to give a little hope not to add stress or make you feel like you aren’t enough. My hope is that you can see if any of these things may show up for you and give you some control over some things that you can do to help improve the odds. Once you have some ideas of common causes you can then take that information and see if it may apply it to your situation.
A great deal of the information I have included in this blog post is also included in an amazing program called Becoming Mama. This program was developed by top fertility expert Katherine Altneu, and my mentor. This program can teach you how to address many of these common causes through a very detailed and comprehensive course.
Now let’s take a look at the top 6 causes
1. Poor Egg Quality
The egg that you ovulate each month started developing about 120 days before ovulation. During that time, everything that you eat, drink, or put on your skin can impact the quality of your eggs for better or worse. It is crucial that your eggs have adequate nutrient and energy stores at the time of fertilization. Those stores will ensure proper cellular division after fertilization and sustain the egg during the six days before it can safely implant into the endometrial lining.
2. Poor Sperm Quality
Similarly to the egg quality, the sperm quality can also be improved or made worse by your dietary and lifestyle choices. Men produce new batches of sperm approximately every 90 days. Therefore, the sperm quality can vary in terms of morphology, motility and sperm count every three months. So, never rely on just one sperm analysis as the quality and the quantity could be the result of the lifestyle and the diet from the previous three months. Medication, stress levels, colds and flus can all impact the quality of the sperm you are trying to conceive with.
3. Low Progesterone Levels
Progesterone is what sustains your uterine lining, and a drop in your progesterone is what causes your uterine lining to shed and your period to start. If your progesterone levels are low, the uterine lining begins to shed or spot too soon, preventing the embryo from implanting in the uterine lining.
Progesterone also maintains the pregnancy. If the egg quality was suboptimal at the time of conception, then the Corpus Luteum from which the follicle was released will also be suboptimal. This can result in low progesterone levels and lead to a miscarriage. Short luteal phase, spotting before periods and irregular cycles are all sign of progesterone deficiency.
Most doctors to ‘fix’ progesterone deficiency by supplementing with synthetic progesterone in the second half of the cycle. However it’s also wise to treat this holistically. We can naturally support progesterone production by supplementing with chaste berry, giving your body the nutrition it needs, and reducing stress. Remember how we said that the eggs start developing 120 days before ovulation? Well that’s when we need to start correcting low progesterone. So rather than trying to boost progesterone in the last 15 days of the 120 day cycle you need to start working on it at the start by supplying your body adequate nutrition, supplementing with the right nutrients and avoiding toxins which can disrupt your hormones.
4. Infection
There are many bacteria and pathogens which can create infections in your reproductive system. Some are very obvious by the change in color and smell of the vaginal discharge while others can be symptomless. Chlamydia, for example, can be one of those symptomless infections you may be unaware of.
If you’ve had multiple miscarriages, you may want to get tested to ensure that you don’t have any dormant infections which can become active once pregnant.
5. Overactive Immune System
An immune system in an overdrive will ignore your body’s signal for suppression during pregnancy. Which means it may attack the embryo or the fertilized egg and prevent it from implanting or interfere with the embryo’s development which can lead to a miscarriage.
6. Smoking
One cigarette contains over 4,000 chemicals including toxic heavy metals such as cadmium and lead, pesticides and other substances classified as toxic to the egg and sperm. Quitting smoking once you are pregnant is not ideal. You both need to be smoke free 120 days minimum before trying to conceive to ward off the negative effects smoking has left on your reproductive cells.
Here are five more factors which could predispose you to miscarriage.
Gluten Intolerance/Celiac disease
Poor thyroid function
Inadequate preconception nutrition
MTHFR gene polymorphism Insulin resistance
If you would like more information you can click on the Becoming Mama link above or book an appointment and lets talk.
Warm wishes & good health-Serena