Prognosis

After three previous miscarriages the chance of a successful pregnancy is between 60 and 85% - high enough to question whether any treatment is justified in the majority of cases. In some circumstances such as antiphospholipid antibodies and incompetent cervix, the prognosis is less good without treatment.

The possibility of a successful pregnancy after three previous unexplained miscarriages

• in a 45 year old women is around 54%
• in a 20 year old women is about 90% (1).

The chance of a subsequent successful pregnancy decreases with increased number of previous miscarriages e.g. – a successful subsequent pregnancy in a 30-year-old woman with two previous unexplained miscarriages is around 84% but the success rate decreases to 71% if the woman has had five previous unexplained miscarriages (1)

15% of pregnancies miscarry, thus one might expect 0.4% of all women to miscarry 3 times. The observed frequency is 0.8%

Reference:

• (1) Duckitt K, Qureshi A. Recurrent Miscarriage. Am Fam Physician. 2008;78(8)