Loss Support & Resources

Most miscarriages (around 80% of them) happen in early pregnancy - the first trimester.

This, combined with the fact that tests have become more sensitive, mean that we are not only discovering pregnancies earlier, but that because we are tracking them throughout those early weeks, we now notice more losses as well. 

If you have experienced a pregnancy loss and are suffering, there is help available.

Firstly, therapy can be a very helpful option to explore at this time. Reach out to Melissa Kelleher, LCSW to learn more about counseling.

Here are other resources to turn to:

• Illume Fertility's support groups (open to all)
• Resolve New England's support groups (a trusted organization, open to all)
• Our Patient Advocate Lisa Rosenthal provides free, confidential support via phone at at 203-354-1157 or email at  lrosenthal@illumefertility.com.
• The Mourners' Bill of Rights offers beautiful, compelling statements about grief
• Miscarriage Hurts provides resources for anyone going through loss
• Pregnancy After Loss Support shares a variety of tools, articles and more

A biochemical pregnancy is the term used when the only sign of pregnancy is the hormone beta hCG, which rises in the bloodstream, then drops when the pregnancy fails to progress.

An anembryonic pregnancy occurs when there is an empty gestational sac (sometimes called a blighted ovum).

A missed miscarriage is the term used in a pregnancy where a heartbeat is detected, but subsequently ceases to beat.

The most common reason for a miscarriage is that the embryo that implanted in the uterus was chromosomally abnormal. In basic terms, a "bad" egg or a "bad" sperm (or both), fertilized to create an embryo that was strong enough to implant in the uterus, but was not viable and did not continue developing into a healthy pregnancy.

These chromosomally unbalanced embryos are referred to as aneuploid. This is an important distinction, because most often the embryo itself arrests its development, rather than being caused by another factor such as the uterine environment.

Aneuploid losses are miscarriages that, as doctors, we often explain to patients as your body’s way of taking care of an embryo that was not meant to be. 

Note: Aneuploidy is the underlying reason for miscarriages in most cases, and it increases with age.

Hearing that the baby you longed for wasn't "meant to be" can feel dismissive or painful to hear, but knowing the reason why these little embryos don't develop into healthy pregnancies can help some grieving patients understand and accept what has happened. 

One of the reasons that these losses may seem more frequent is that we are able to detect pregnancies quite early on, particularly when fertility treatment is involved. As pregnancy tests have become more sensitive and other technologies have advanced, recognizing early pregnancies has become more common.

The reason there has been a shift towards using the term pregnancy loss instead of miscarriage is that that word "miscarriage" can imply someone did something wrong to cause it.

Many people prefer to use the term pregnancy loss since it more accurately describes what happened, but both terms refer to the same event.

Beyond miscarriages caused by aneuploidy, there are also some patients who have pregnancy losses that are chromosomally normal, termed “euploid.” Some patients have more than their fair share of (euploid) miscarriages.

This condition of repeated miscarriages has a specific clinical term, Recurrent Pregnancy Loss (RPL), and it affects between 1-5% of all women. While aneuploid embryos almost always end up as first trimester losses, they do not count towards the strict diagnosis of RPL as the cause of loss is identifiable.

Recurrent Pregnancy Loss (RPL): The repetitive failure of euploid (chromosomally normal) pregnancy. Two or more failed pregnancies warrants further evaluation, as it exceeds the average pregnancy loss rate.

There are strict inclusion criteria required to receive RPL as a medical diagnosis, and it is important to keep these in mind when speaking with your OB/GYN or fertility specialist.

There are many misconceptions among both patients and the medical community about what RPL is and which patients warrant being diagnosed with it.

Frustratingly, we do not find a distinct cause in over 50-60% of patients with recurrent pregnancy loss. While this is very emotionally unsatisfying for both patient and doctor, there are many misconceptions about what this means that we can now dispel. 

Learn more from Dr. Joshua Hurwitz here.