Age of parents-to-be a factor in miscarriage risk

Age of parents-to-be a factor in miscarriage risk
By Mustafa Shafawi | Posted: 11 July 2011 1538 hrs

SINGAPORE: A woman who experienced bleeding in early pregnancy is at risk of having a miscarriage. But that risk goes up if she's older, has a previous history of miscarriage and a low blood progesterone (hormonal) level during pregnancy.

These findings were culled from the first of its kind study to be conducted among pregnant women in Singapore.

The study was jointly carried out by KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) and Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School (Duke-NUS).

In this study, early pregnancy bleeding resulted in complete miscarriage in about one in four women.

And the age of the father-to-be is also a factor.

Men aged above 40 added an eight-fold risk of miscarriage, and a mother older than 34 years was two-fold more likely to miscarry.

One of the prinicipal investigators for this study, Assistant Professor Tan Thiam Chye, said that from this, it can be inferred that the biological clock ticks not only in the woman, but also in the father-to-be.

The study was conducted among KKH patients from November 2010 to March 2011.

The findings of this study will be presented at the 6th KKH Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) this Friday.

Assistant Professor Tan underscored the need for a larger study to validate the risk levels revealed by these preliminary findings.

- CNA/cc

- wong chee tat :)