Infertility coach Erica Hoke walks through why miscarriages happen and what questions to ask your doctor. Most are caused by fetal genetic problems, infections like ureaplasma or bacterial vaginosis, hormone issues, or structural problems like fibroids and endometriosis. She pushes for follow-up testing instead of accepting "it just happens."
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Thank you. Our topic today is why did I have to miscarry and what can I talk to my doctor about after a miscarriage? If you don't know who I am, I'm Erica Hoke. I'm an infertility coach, and I myself have suffered my own miscarriage, um, less than a and was told I would need donor eggs. And then I conceived, had a set of twins, another set of twins, and then 7 years after my diagnosis, I used donor eggs, gave birth naturally to— I mean, without reproductive medicine— to my last son. So if you're wondering watching this morning, um, touches you personally and you have, um, suffered a miscarriage, please go ahead and drop— or if you're on replay, let me know if you've gone through a miscarriage. It's honestly one of the most painful things that I've ever gone through, and it's kind of— that some women go through over and over again, uh, miscarriages, sometimes unnecessarily. We're going to get to that in our points, uh, today that I'm going to share with you. So let's talk about— that's if I can talk. Let's talk stats for a minute. So from the Cleveland Clinic, they said 50% of all miscarriages are due to genetic abnormalities of the fetus, meaning parent B did did not have a day that contributed to that. It was something in the genetic makeup of the fetus. It's the baby, the embryo, um, and that was what led to the demise of the baby. We have a whole nother 50% of the time over here, and 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage. So that is like a golf, unexplained miscarriage. And unfortunately, that do some additional testing. I really focus on additional miscarriage support and fertility empowered because unfortunately there's testing to be done on the mom. Done for you that can determine answers and keep you from having more miscarriage. That's what I will do, is provide information for you so that you never have to go through that suffering again. So the first thing that can cause a miscarriage, that can contribute to, um, repeat miscarriage, is infection. And so one of the most common and overlooked and I hear more and I'm glad than suffering, but that it's coming to the forefront as a, as a test that needs to be something that needs looked at is something called urea plasma. So, um, I'm not going to go into all the details about urea plasma. I actually wrote a blog post. Please transfer to my blog on my website, just my first and last name, Erica Hoke. EricaHoke.com. Ureaplasma— it's a microbe infection that many people have not symptomatic. You don't have any symptoms other than infertility and repeat miscarriage. There's also something called bacterial vaginosis that can cause unexplained miscarriages as well. Group B strep which if you're seeing suffering from sec— fertility, then you might know the first time before your delivery for Group B strep. And that can actually— so an infection can cause miscarriage, and you should get some additional testing after your miscarriage to see. So the second thing that can cause miscarriage is hormone irregularity. So progesterone is something that is, I guess, in Western medicine world, but I see again, in my book, contributing authors that have had their progesterone levels, um, supported and gone on to have healthy pregnancies after their miscarriage. You kind of take that to heart, right? Um, thyroid, I'd I speak a lot about thyroid support in my group, and thyroid is a football field. The normal range is like— I say it's field wide. If you're still experiencing thyroid symptoms, your number good on that really, really big foot, you need it to be over here to feel better. And it also for your personal, what I like to call your personal thyroid number for yourself for pregnancy, because just range doesn't mean your body can support a pregnancy with that thyroid range. So I often look at in my coaching program. Okay, so the third thing is is improper implantation. And so a few different things. So this can be structural. So we see uterus abnormalities and sometimes, um, caused from physical things in the uterus, things that endometriosis, um, things like fibroids and distorting the, the contour of the uterus. I had both of those things, by the way. And sometimes with— I have something called Factor V Leiden. Factor V Leiden, um, can contribute to the embryo not being able to implant well. So this is unfortunately a very heartbreaking condition for some people because they go through multiple miscarriages only to be diagnosed with Factor V Leiden. Get on blood thinners and then understand that all of those miscarriages could have been prevented. That you can talk to your doctor about. Clearly I'm not a doctor, but these are things that I've been with my clients and, um, and unfortunately it's just not talked about enough. Um, a lot of people even share miscarriage. A lot of people ask their doctors because they're brushed aside. Now I'm not dismissing the fact that, um, bridge can just be happens, but that's clearly not statistically the case. Definitely can be for you some additional testing to be done. So I am going to write up a blog, um, information I'm getting on my video. I like to keep it to 5 minutes, and I'm I'm over that. So with you on Friday, or your Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9:00 AM for my summertime hours, summertime here. And you have a great day.
