To determine the length of time you need to
wait to try to conceive again after a miscarriage
we need to answer two questions.
The first question is “How long does it
take for the pregnancy tissue and all of the
hormones to be completely out of your body?”
If you had a very early miscarriage, before
the pregnancy was seen on an ultrasound,
it wont take very long for your body to clear
the pregnancy hormone, hCG, because there
wasnt much there in the first place.
For example, if you lost the pregnancy a week
after you missed your period, it might only
take a few days for your hCG levels to return
to normal.
What is you have a later miscarriage or a
D&C?
Should you wait a longer period of time before trying?
Does having a period mean its safe to start trying again?
I will answer all of these questions and more
Stay tuned...
If you had a later miscarriage, in which a
sac or fetus was seen on ultrasound, it is
going to take longer to resolve.
It could take anywhere from a few weeks to
several weeks.
Women who have a D&C to remove the pregnancy
tissue from their uterus will generally see
the remaining hCG go away more quickly than
women who pass the pregnancy on their own
without a D&C.
At IVF1, we recommend that women follow their
hCG levels after a miscarriage using blood
tests every week or two to make sure that
everything is resolving as it is supposed to.
There are times when the tissue and hormones
do not completely clear out as they should.
If we find this has happened, then there are
additional treatments we might recommend.
Luckily, this doesn't happen very often.
In our experience, vaginal bleeding, or a period, is an
unreliable way to figure out when the pregnancy
is completely out of your system.
Here’s why.
When the pregnancy tissue is first expelled,
a woman will usually experience vaginal bleeding
lasting for several days.
This is normal.
At that point, the hCG levels in her blood
will start dropping.
A few weeks later, when the hCG levels are
close to being gone, she MIGHT have bleeding
again - but not always!!
Why not?
Sometimes, when the hCG level gets low enough,
a woman will start to mature a new egg in
preparation for ovulation.
This causes her estrogen to increase and that
could result in her not getting a period.
In fact, it is possible for a woman to ovulate
and get pregnant again within two weeks of
the day she had a miscarriage.
This is another reason why following the hCG
levels after a miscarriage is generally a good idea.
O.K. let's say that all of the pregnancy tissue
and hormones are gone from your body.
How long should you wait after that to attempt
pregnancy again?
The correct answer is that you shouldn’t
wait at all.
You should try to get pregnant again as soon
as possible.
This is different from what we told women
in the past.
Many years ago, doctors would tell women to
wait for 3 months or even longer before attempting
pregnancy again.
It is important to understand that these old
recommendations were NOT based on any scientific
evidence.
Now, we have very good scientific evidence
to back up our recommendations.
This study looked at over 1000 women that
had an early miscarriage but were interested
in trying to conceive again.
Researchers divided the women into two groups
based on how long they WAITED before trying
to conceive again.
The first group were couples that tried to
conceive again right away - in three months
or less.
I’ll call them the fast start group.
The second group were those couples that decided
to wait for longer than three months before
trying to conceive again.
I’ll call them the slow start group.
How did each group do?
The couples in both groups were tracked for
six months after they started trying.
The results are pretty amazing.
First, the fast start group became pregnant
more often.
About 70% of couples became pregnant in the
fast start group compared to only 50% in the
slow start group
Second, the fast start group took less time
to become pregnant.
In fact, the fast starters conceived 71% faster
than the slow start group.
Some of you might be worried about trying to
conceive again right away might increase the
chances for another miscarriage.
This wasn’t the case.
In this study, the miscarriage rate in the
fast start and slow start groups were the same.
However, in another study, researchers actually
found a lower miscarriage rate in a fast start group.
Ultimately, 53% of the fast start group had
a live birth compared to 36% of the slow start group
Our InfertilityTV Bottom Line is this: It
is going to take some time for all of the
pregnancy tissue and hormones to be cleared
from your system.
The shorter your pregnancy was, the faster it
is going to be cleared.
If you're up for it, try to conceive again
as quickly as possible.
Odds are you will be able to conceive again
more quickly and overall have a greater chance
of becoming pregnant and having a live birth.
I also assembled a number of other really
interesting tips about trying to conceive
into this YouTube playlist.
A number of viewers like you have sent us
comments that following these tips really
helped them to have a baby quickly so check
it out right now.
