In Vitro Fertility Goddess

Miscarriage Cure?

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Wednesday 10 September 2008

Source: Human Reproduction

A new scientific breakthrough has the potential to prevent millions of unexplained miscarriages worldwide after the discovery that up to a third of them are caused by an excess of immune cells in a woman's uterus.

Researchers in Britain will soon start trials involving a steroid drug which will be administered to women who have suffered recurrent miscarriages.

Professor Siobhan Quenby from the school of reproductive and developmental medicine at Liverpool University who led the study says the treatment should be able to prevent up to 3000 miscarriages a year in the UK alone once it's available to patients in 5 to 10 years time.

Professor Quenby also hopes to develop a screening test to determine if certain women are at risk of miscarriage before they fall pregnant.

30 out of 40 of her patients who were suffering from multiple miscarriages have already given birth to healthy babies after receiving the steroid drug called prednisolone.

The research focused on the discovery of a link between excess blood supply and the failure of a foetus to implant in the womb which is thought to be caused by a type of immune system cell in the womb that promotes the growth of blood vessels.

This in turn creates an over supply of blood and oxygen undermining the foetus' ability to become implanted into the wall of the womb, leading to miscarriage.

But leading fertility expert Professor Lord Robert Winston warned that it was difficult to know how affective the treatment is until a full clinical trial had been completed.

He said: "It is a very important area, but a difficult one. There is always the chance of this being caused by the placebo effect."

Sarah Williams, IVFG Reporter