Early Pregnancy Loss

First, my sincerest condolences on your loss(es). I of course will do whatever I can to try to help you figure out what happened.

The information below is specifically for women who have had one or more early losses (between 3 and 7 weeks) where there is no tissue to examine. If you have had one or more losses after 7 weeks where there is tissue to examine, please go to our Pregnancy Loss page.

There are several reasons you may have had one or more early losses. These include anatomic issues with your uterus, genetic issues with either you or your partner, or finally problems with the lining of your uterus (called the endometrium). Before you do any testing to see if the cause is your endometrium it would be important that your doctor evaluates the anatomy of your uterus to make sure there are no issues, such as a septum or other anatomic abnormalities. If your uterus appears normal and there are no male factor problems, and you are still having repeated unexplained losses, then it may be useful to have your endometrium tested to see if that is the issue. The good news is that if your endometrium is the problem, the solution is very simple: use high doses of progesterone vaginal suppositories during the first trimester.

Here is our recent paper on this issue: Stephenson MD, McQueen D, Desjardins MD, Kliman HJ. (2016) Vaginal micronized progesterone started in the luteal phase improves live birth rate in women with recurrent pregnancy loss. Fertility and Sterility, online release,

a press release from Yale University about the work: Progesterone may be key to preventing recurrent miscarriage,

and a short TV news piece describing our study: Hope for women with recurring pregnancy losses.

If this seems like something that you or your doctor would like to evaluate, please share with your healthcare provider information about our Endometrial Function Test®.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to call our Yale clinical laboratory at: 203-785-7642.

We hope we can help you achieve a successful pregnancy.