Chance of live birth in the first pregnancy after referral among patients with recurrent pregnancy loss is not influenced by their relatives’ reproductive history

Abstract

Purpose: Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is defined as three or more consecutive pregnancy losses and affects 1–3% of couples trying to conceive. Pregnancy loss is more common among RPL patients’ siblings than in the general population. Our objective was to investigate whether first-degree relatives with pregnancy losses influenced the chance of live birth in the first pregnancy after referral among women with RPL.

Materials and methods: This is a cohort study of 2138 women with RPL seen at the Danish RPL Unit at Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet between January 1st 2000 and December 31st 2017 with follow-up until December 2018. Pregnancies among first-degree relatives were reported by patients at their first consultation. Chance of live birth after referral was compared by logistic regression analysis.

Results: Overall, 76% of the referred women achieved a pregnancy after referral and of these, 58% delivered a live born child. Women whose mother had experienced pregnancy loss were referred at a younger age than women with no pregnancy losses among first-degree relatives (mean age 33.6 (SD 4.6) versus 34.3 (SD 4.5), p = 0.002). Pregnancy losses among first-degree relatives did not influence chance of live birth.

Conclusions: Our results indicate that pregnancy losses among first-degree family members is not an important risk factor for outcome of the first pregnancy after referral among women with RPL.

摘要

目的：复发性妊娠丢失（RPL）是指三次或更多次的连续妊娠丢失, 影响1-3%的备孕夫妇。与一般人群相比, RPL患者的兄弟姐妹更易发生妊娠丢失。我们的目的是调查一级亲属妊娠丢失是否影响患者转诊后第一次妊娠的活产率。

材料和方法：这是一项队列研究, 包括2000年1月1日至2017年12月31日在丹麦哥本哈根大学医院RPL病房就诊的2138名RPL患者, 随访至2018年12月。一级亲属中的生育史由患者在第一次咨询时记录。采用logistic回归分析比较转诊后活产率。

结果：总的来说, 76%的患者在转诊后妊娠, 其中58%的患者分娩的孩子活产。在一级亲属中, 母亲经历过妊娠丢失的女性转诊年龄比其家庭成员中没有妊娠丢失的小（平均年龄33.6岁（SD 4.6）, 而在34.3岁（SD 4.5）, p=0.002）。一级亲属的妊娠丢失不影响活产率。

结论：我们的结果表明, 一级亲属的妊娠丢失并不是RPL患者转诊后第一次妊娠结局的重要危险因素。

Keywords:

• Recurrent pregnancy loss
• cohort study
• family history

Ethics

The database is approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency under the approval number RH-2017-315. No further ethical permissions are required according to Danish legislation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

A.M.K. has received a post-doctoral grant from the Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet Research Foundation. No specific funding was sought for this study.