Steroid could end miscarriage trauma

Scientists have developed a treatment that could help women who suffer from recurrent miscarriages.

Doctors found that by giving them a steroid, they can reduce the numbers of a type of cell in their womb which endangers their babies.

Two women who had suffered several miscarriages gave birth following treatment and three others are pregnant.

Women are considered to suffer recurrent miscarriages when they have lost three babies. The condition affects

one in 100 women of reproductive age and doctors are often unable to offer an explanation or treatment.

Researchers who discovered the new treatment say trials need to begin immediately.

The study was led by Dr Siobhan Quenby, senior lecturer and honorary consultant in the department of developmental and reproductive medicine at Liverpool University. She told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Copenhagen today: "I am very excited by this. It is not a cure but could lead to that in the future."

She has found that uterine natural killer cells, which fight cancer and viruses, can prevent the embryo embedding in the womb and developingnormally. The cells are balanced in most women but when present in large numbers can cause miscarriages.

Dr Quenby said giving a steroid called prednisolone reduces the number of killer cells to near normal levels.

She studied a group of women with severe recurrent miscarriage, ranging from three lost pregnancies to 22. Of those with high levels of uterine natural killer cells, 29 were given a three-week course of the steroid.

Dr Quenby said: "The prednisolone significantly reduced the number of uterine natural killer cells. The women had an average of 14 per cent, with the highest percentage being 72 per cent, and after treatment the average dropped to nine per cent. Although nine per cent is still higher than the normal average of five per cent, these women only took prednisolone for three weeks. In practice, they would take the steroid for about three months."

But she added: "It is important, in the excitement of new hope for these poor women, that the results are not exaggerated."