Pregnancy after a miscarriage: the sooner the better?

Couples who attempt to conceive a child within the first three months of a miscarriage (which occurred within 20 weeks of pregnancy) have the same or even greater chance of having a successful pregnancy than those who wait three months or more.

This is the result of a study conducted by the National Institutes of Health of the United States and published in the authoritative scientific journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

I would like to mention that the WHO suggests waiting 6 months after an abortion before trying again and very often gynecologists advise to stick to at least 3 taken before trying the stork hunt again.

The question of when it is possible to try again is also frequent on this site among women who lose a child, often because there is a lack of correct communication with doctors who do not fully inform patients about the post-abortion process. There is still a lot of work to be done on this aspect!

Why try a miscarriage immediately afterwards?

According to research data, it would seem that pregnancy comes faster after an abortion if you try to conceive within the first three months after abortion and not after.

In the study, the researchers analyzed data collected from research conducted between 2007 and 2011 that evaluated the effects of aspirin in pregnancy and on the reproductive capacity of women who had a history of miscarriage behind them.

The women involved were 1228 between 18 and 40 years of age but in particular the research focused on 1083 of these women of which more than 99% had had a miscarriage within 20 weeks of gestation. None of these women had had an ectopic pregnancy or a molar pregnancy. Participants were monitored for up to six menstrual cycles and, if they had become pregnant in the meantime, until pregnancy was successful.

The emotional aspects

Even if no physiological evidence has been found to delay pregnancy attempts after a miscarriage, couples may still need time to heal emotionally before trying again.

However, as lead study author Karen Schliep, a postdoctoral fellow at NICHD Epidemiology Branch, said, if the couple feels ready to try again, the findings suggest thatconventional recommendations to wait at least three months after the loss may be unwarranted.

The advice from a friend that I would like to give you is to do a gynecological check about a month after the abortion and based on the outcome of the check and the opinion of your doctor, evaluate the best timing to try again.