recurrent pregnancy loss and positive ANA

LauraL

1 Posts
Reply Posted on: Jan 6, 2014 at 12:16pm
I've had 3 miscarriages and 1 stillbirth all easily naturally conceived. After 2 losses we had our karyotypes done and my husband has a paracentric inversion and our genetics counselor said with our inversion our risk was very low and did not recommend PGD at that time. Our son that was lost at 27 weeks had a balanced inversion like my husband so cause of death is still unknown. I had a positive ANA in pregnancy with him (1/160), but no diagnosed autoimmune disease. Now after 4 losses they are recommending PGD assuming our 3 early losses were a result of the inversion (they were losses at 6-7 weeks each time). I'm nervous about moving forward with PGD with my lingering ANA out there that has been dismissed wondering if it in fact has contributed to our losses. I have two questions. One, in your experience with recurrent pregnancy loss and positive ANA were the losses all early losses or have you had any 2nd trimester losses due to this as well? My second question is are there any telltale signs in the pregnancies that suggest that having any positive ANA was a factor (example my son had an inflamed placenta which they said could be due to infection although there was no infection present in him or the fluid and I had a high white blood cell count)? I'm looking for evidence to help convince them to do additional bloodwork. Do immunological losses typically happen during a specific timeframe?

Thank you so muchfor your time,
Laura

Dr. Braverman

2026 Posts
RE: recurrent pregnancy loss and positive ANA Posted on: Jan 6, 2014 at 1:26pm
Hi Laura , I am very sorry for your losses. I am sure that these losses are not of genetic origin and Im concerned that only doing PGD may lead to another early or late loss. The presence of the positive ANA in this setting is clear indciation that most of your issue resides with failure to correctly generate tolerance for paternal genetics that are on the embryo (a problem for women that have positive ANA) and an immune response against the paternal portion of the embryo leading to early loss and in many cases stillbirth as well. This can be diagnosed and treated succesfully. Please fill out a consult request from my website and we can arrange for a brief discussion on your case as well as the need for our services.
Braverman Medical Team
Braverman Reproductive Immunology P.C.