Fragile

So I left you all hanging there for a while.

The outcome from my last pregnancy is that they never found whether it was in my uterus or in my tubes but the hcg levels did eventually decline to nothing within a week or two. So the pregnancy did have some indications of being ectopic but we will never know for sure.

And life goes on, the sun rises and sets. I get up each day and try to do the things I am supposed to and that I need to do and sometime even that I want to do. And some days life has some joy and others it has mostly sadness. And we keep trying to have a baby.

It seems it is possible there is a genetic condition in my family called Fragile X. This condition can cause intellectual disability including autism, learning disabilities and developmental delays. About 20% of female carriers of the condition have premature ovarian failure. So if I have it it could mean that my miscarriages have been caused by poor egg quality. I got tested for Fragile X a couple of days ago and last week I had another test (an Anti-Mullerian Hormone or AMH test) which measures ovarian reserve. I should get the results back in the next two or three weeks.

If I am a carrier I'm not sure where we'll go from here. A Fragile X carrier will pass on the condition to 50% of her children. Embryos can be screened for Fragile X so that it is not passed on - but this means you need to have an ivf cycle where you collect a lot of eggs in order for you to have a decent chance of having a successful pregnancy with a baby that is unaffected by the condition. Its unlikely to be able to collect that many eggs if your ovarian reserve is getting low.

I figure there is no point getting too worried about it until I get the test results back. However, I have started to read more about the ivf process.

I am also having a procedure called an HSG which involves pumping dye into the uterus so that the fallopian tubes can be seen on an x-ray. Its possible, although unlikely, that I have some problem in one or both tubes that could be causing ectopic pregnancies. I only know for sure that one of the pregnancies was in the uterus. In theory, some or all of the other three could have been ectopic.

If you are thinking that looking for the cause of recurrent miscarriage is like looking for a needle in a haystack then you would probably be right.

I can't help but search anyway.