Well despite the fact that going into an office full of pregnant woman was very emotional, and the fact that the ditzy nurse thought I was in there for an OB check-up and wanted to know where my urine sample was and I had to be rude to her and inform her why I was really there, the results of the pathology report were very telling and it was worth the emotional aggravation. Out of all the tests two things came up. The first one, that is most likely 99% the cause was an extra chromosome was found in trisomy 22. An extra one in 21 can result in Downs Syndrome, an extra in 22 99.99% of the time results in m/c. The probability is that out of the two eggs that we had transferred, extra chromosomes were taken from the one egg, and that was why that egg did not become fertilized. Those extra chromosomes ended up in the fertilized egg and the rest is history. It all occurred in the petri dish is how he put it in our case! The results did find too that it was a girl. We wanted a girl very badly. We had chosen the name Abigail or Abbey. I started to get teary-eyed and the doctor was trying to counsel me that although the chromosome test showed two X chromosomes it was only a girl on paper. It would have never become the girl we wanted. I nodded that I understood but that I wanted to know the sex anyway.
However, the dr also informed us of a problem I was not aware of. The name of this is longer than I care to write, so I will give its abbreviation. It is called MTHFR Mutation C677T. It is a genetic blood-clotting disorder. It was easier for me to look up the information on the Internet than to recall all he was telling me except I will add that this is a hereditary condition and it can cause trouble in a 2nd or 3rd trimester pregnancy. It causes blood clots in the placenta. Taking baby aspirin before and during the pregnancy can treat this. He also told me that I most likely should take baby aspirin from the time I turn 40 on. In the following excerpt I am about to put in it says that folic acid also reduces the problem which is weird because I have been taking B12 with folic acid and another folic acid pill before I was pregnant, and during pregnancy I was taking prenatal vitamins with folic acid, well anyway, here is a brief explanation about MTHFR C677T:
Elevated plasma homocysteine is an independent risk factor for arteriosclerotic coronary heart disease and thrombosis. It has been estimated that 10% of the population’s risk for coronary artery disease is attributable to elevated homocysteine levels. With each 5-µmol/L rise in total homocysteine levels, coronary artery disease was increased by 60% for men and 80% for women. Homozygosity for the C677T MTHFR mutation has been associated with intermediate and mild hyperhomocysteinemia. C677T homozygosity correlated with a 3-fold increased risk for premature cardiovascular disease in patients with mild hyperhomo-cysteinemia even without other known risk factors such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or diabetes. Patients with this mutation responded well to folic acid treatment, which lowers the plasma homocysteine level.
So that's the pathology report. Interestingly enough when we told him we have three other eggs still frozen he said that some RE's are doing a test whereby they can take a cell from the frozen eggs and determine whether or not that egg has the chromosome 22 problem before the transfer so this is something we have to talk to our Re about. He said not knowing the cause of our first m/c, and you can't count the ectopic because you don't know if the baby would have been healthy if it wasn't where it was, the chance of this happening again is 1/100. If we knew for sure the other two were actually due to the same chromosomal problems, then he said we would have a real problem. But it is like anything else we have been told. There is a chance we can have a healthy, normal pregnancy again or we can m/c again. There is no. It is something now that we have to look at on an emotional level. Can we deal with this anxiety and possibly another m/c again? If you were asking me this question today, I would say no way. I can't deal with it any more, but I am still in the grieving process. Our ob/gyn is going to contact the RE and let him know everything. Thank goodness for that! One less thing I have to worry about.
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