Sandrine, a healthy, 41 year old female patient came to us. She had been trying to conceive for 3 years and had gotten pregnant twice, but sadly both of these ended in miscarriage. She had no prior full term pregnancies.
Sandrine had a regular menstrual cycle of 28 days, blood flow for 4 days, no mention of PMS or menstrual cramps. Her energy was good, sleep was about 7 hours every night and she did not wake up. Her digestion was normal, with consistent bowel movements. Gluten and nightshades gave her issues sometimes. She was happy in life overall, but the two miscarriages were starting to take a toll on her emotionally.
The lab work we received from her Reproductive Endocrinologist was the basic hormone tests; FSH, LH, Estradiol, Prolactin, Testosterone and many more. But they had left out one very important group of tests: a thrombophilia panel. A thrombophilia issue is an abnormality of blood coagulation that increases the risk of thrombosis, thereby causing miscarriage. Usually these labs will only be ordered, after their a patient’s third miscarriage. In addition, some of the thrombophilia tests will never be ordered if the patient has carried to full term prior.
At our clinic, we have seen countless women with less then three miscarriages or who have carried to full term prior, not getting the tests they need. With advanced maternal age, time is of the essence.
We created a treatment plan of one a week acupuncture treatments and Chinese herbal medicine to rebalance the uterine environment from any trauma from the previous miscarriages, but also support to prevent future miscarriages. We were also diligent about her lab work, we ordered some of the lab work ourselves and also reached out to Sandrine’s doctor as an advocate on her behalf. After much back and worth with the doctor’s office, we discovered that one of the tests we ordered came back positive, the MTHFR homozygous gene mutation. The MTHFR gene provides instructions for making the MTHFR protein, which helps the body process folate. Any mutation in this gene can cause miscarriage. We helped Sandrine navigate the conversation she needed to have with her doctor, fortunately this time they were more generous in their listening, which was wonderful since Sandrine found out she was pregnant a third time!
Sandrine was referred to a perinatologist immediately and put on Heparin for the remainder of her pregnancy. We worked with her throughout her first trimester, with only acupuncture, we continued to increase blood flow to the uterus, preventing miscarriage. We then saw her later in her third trimester to assist in labor encouragement. She carried to full term and gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Liam.
