News and Fake News in Investigating Recurrent Pregnancy Loss

Abstract

Women and couples who have had the misfortune of losing pregnancies, particularly multiple pregnancies, would often wish to know why the miscarriages happened. This information is important for them to make sense of the loss, help with closure, and seek treatments to avoid future miscarriages. Healthcare practitioners would want to know the reason for the miscarriages so that they can provide accurate prognostic information and offer targeted treatments to improve future pregnancy outcomes. The deeply felt need for finding reasons for miscarriages has led to the proliferation of multiple tests. But which one are useful? And which ones are fake? Which test results show an association with miscarriage, have prognostic value, and guide treatment? Which ones don’t? This lecture takes an evidence-based lens to these questions to tease apart the real news from fake news.