This content was created by Erica Hoke. This content was uploaded by Erica Hoke. This is a YouTube video titled "I Get Pregnant BUT I Keep Miscarrying ...." (uploaded 2023-01-15). It is a first-person informational talk by Erica Hoke, a fertility coach and self-described infertile mom of four, addressing causes of repeat miscarriage that are often overlooked and actionable steps to address them. Topics covered include undiagnosed autoimmune and thyroid disorders, vaginal bacterial overgrowth (e.g., ureaplasma, bacterial vaginosis) and the utility of the post-coital test (including checks for natural killer cell activity and vaginal environment), clotting disorders with emphasis on Factor V Leiden (testing, advocacy, and treatment with blood thinners), and insufficient progesterone with supplementation options (oral, vaginal, topical). She also references a free hour-long training in her Facebook support group "Infertility Empowered" and encourages viewers to advocate for appropriate testing and treatment.
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I get pregnant, but I keep miscarrying. It's a gut-wrenching conversation to have with clients, and unfortunately it happens all too often. I am Erica Hoke. I'm a fertility coach, and I'm also the infertile mom of 4. And today we're talking about, um, things that can affect repeat miscarriage that are often overlooked and that are easy to fix, and often in your control. So let's get started. So the first thing that I see often with clients is undiagnosed autoimmune disorders, undiagnosed, uh, thyroid disease, and undiagnosed, um, bacterial, um, bacterial overgrowth in the vagina. So things like ureaplasma, bacterial vaginosis, and there's a test in particular that I see not being done often enough in the reproductive medicine world, and that's the post-coital test, right? So that is going to check for things like natural killer cells and also see that the vaginal environment is hospitable to those sperm. So let me back up a little bit. So undiagnosed autoimmune diseases, so things like, things like I'm blanking out right now, but we're gonna move on to thyroid disease. Um, thyroid is something that I am really passionate about talking about because it is, um, often undiagnosed unless you've had an extended thyroid panel. You can't know if your thyroid numbers, um, are accurate, especially if you're going through infertility. So you wanna make sure that you get those extended thyroid, um, thyroid panels done that include things like ferritin, free T3, free T4, and that sort of thing. So the second thing that I see often in women with, with repeat miscarriages, clotting disorders. So if you've had even one miscarriage, I would strongly, strongly suggest you get a clotting panel done and especially something called Factor V Leiden. So while I'm talking to you about this, I want to just let you know that I can't tell you everything about Factor V Leiden here today, but I do have a training in my, my support group on Facebook. It's called Infertility Empowered, and there's a whole hour-long training in there about how Factor V affects not only miscarriage but secondary infertility, primary infertility, and all the ways that it contributes to infertility. What I will say is that, um, you might get a lot of pushback from your doctor asking for this test, and it's completely within the realm of possibility if you've had a miscarriage that you're carrying these genes that cause a clotting disorder and never had a clot and never, um, had any symptoms other than, um, chemical pregnancies or repeat miscarriage. So please advocate for yourself. And get that test done. It's very easy to treat if you get that diagnosis. They just put you on some blood thinners. And as a matter of fact, just to bolster your confidence, many reproductive endocrinologists will go ahead and just give women blood thinners when they do an IVF transfer and they won't even test for factor V. They just do it to help the implantation along. So It's not outside the scope of practice for a reproductive endocrinologist to, to care for you in that way. So ask for that test. The third thing and the final thing for today that we're going to talk about is insufficient progesterone. Again, this is something that is easily fixed and frustratingly overlooked and often undiagnosed. So you can supplement progesterone 3 different ways. You can do it orally, you can do it vaginally, and you can do it topically. And I recommend that you talk to your practitioner about doing it all 3 ways because it enters— clearly it enters the body differently, but it affects your hormone levels differently. So I would talk to them about that. Remember, I've got that free training in my group. I'm going to drop the link below. Health and blessings to you guys. I will see you next time.
