Most hospitals offer to do tests or investigations only after a woman has had three or more miscarriages in a row (the definition of recurrent miscarriage). This can be frustrating and upsetting if you have had fewer losses, or if you had, say, two miscarriages and then a baby and then another miscarriage. You might feel that no-one is taking your losses seriously. The reason for this policy, though, is because most women who have one or two miscarriages will go on to have a successful pregnancy next time. This suggests that their miscarriages were due to chance rather than to an underlying cause.

About one in one hundred couples will experience recurrent miscarriages and be offered further investigations. However, having tests does not necessarily mean that a cause or causes will be found. Although new research is helping us to learn more about the causes of miscarriage, there is much that is still unknown.

If you do undergo investigations for recurrent miscarriage, it is possible, therefore, that many of the tests performed will be reported as normal and a clear cause for the miscarriages will not be found. This can be frustrating both for you and for the staff involved, although it does mean that there is a very high chance of the next pregnancy being successful. If a problem is identified, there is still a good chance of having a successful pregnancy.

Read our leaflet "Investigations following recurrent miscarriage"