What causes recurrent miscarriage?

Even one miscarriage is too many, but if you have suffered multiple miscarriages, you will be desperate to pinpoint the cause and get treatment.

Hughes Syndrome is estimated to be the cause of one in five recurrent miscarriages and is the commonest treatable cause of recurrent miscarriage.

Yet, because it was only identified as a condition in the 1980s, many GPs are unaware of it. Fifteen percent of women who have suffered three or more miscarriages are Hughes Syndrome sufferers.

It is easily diagnosed by a simple blood test. It is also easily treated.

The syndrome was discovered in 1983 by Professor Graham Hughes, Head of the London Lupus Centre. He believes Hughes Syndrome should be made routine testing for any woman who's suffered a miscarriage.

He also recommends that any woman who has suffered even one miscarriage should seek a test for the syndrome to find out whether she is a sufferer.

It takes just a simple blood test to detect it. Treatment is relatively simple, with an anticoagulant such as low-dose aspirin, but should only be undertaken on the advice of your doctor.

Hughes Syndrome causes blood to become sticky and form clots. If you are pregnant, this sticky blood may be unable to travel through the small veins leading to the placenta, causing an inadequate blood supply to the foetus and thus a miscarriage.

Visit our sister site netdoctor for more information. Also see www.hughes-syndrome.org

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