Anyone taken lovenox/heparin without being dx'd with a clotting/autoimmune disorder?

JustinsMama · 02-26-2009, 05:33 PM

Hi ladies. I had my 3rd miscarriage a few weeks ago. I went through the repeat pregnancy loss testing (including the clotting/autoimmune testing) after my 2nd loss. Everything came out normal. I'm finding it really frustrating that my doctors aren't finding a reason for my losses. I feel 3 losses in a row has to be more than just bad luck. I'm strongly suspecting clotting/autoimmune issues even though my testing came back normal. I have a few known autoimmune issues including hashimotos thyroid, and that is why I'm suspecting autoimmune issues. I would really like to try lovenox or heparin next time I get pregnant, but I'm not sure if my doctor will agree to give it to me since my testing didn't find anything. I'm wondering has anyone taken lovenox or heparin without testing positive for clotting/autoimmune issues? Is it possible I may need lovenox/heparin even though its not showing up in my bloodwork? Thanks ladies.

unctoothlady · 02-26-2009, 05:58 PM

Yes! I am doing so right now. None of my tests came back conclusive for anything so my doc placed me on it as a preventative measure. So far so good. (I am also under the care of a hematologist so that she can monitor me).

I too had 3 previous losses. I am so sorry you had to go through that.

JustinsMama · 02-27-2009, 10:51 AM

Valeria-thank you for your reply, and congrats on your pregnancy! Can I ask, did your doctor suggest the lovenox, or did you have to push for it? I have a feeling I am going to have to push for it because my doc has not suggested it as an option. I'm not sure how to go about convincing him to give it to me.

unctoothlady · 02-27-2009, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JustinsMama

Valeria-thank you for your reply, and congrats on your pregnancy! Can I ask, did your doctor suggest the lovenox, or did you have to push for it? I have a feeling I am going to have to push for it because my doc has not suggested it as an option. I'm not sure how to go about convincing him to give it to me.

Actually I asked him if there was ANYTHING they could do to possibly help to prevent another loss and HE suggested putting me on it.

~Traci~ · 03-19-2009, 01:44 PM

I just happened upon this thread b/c I'm in the same situation as Stacy (wanting Heparin next time w/ no definate cause for m/c's)

Valeria - How much Levonox are you taking/day?

Thanks!
Traci

PCOSDC · 03-19-2009, 05:51 PM

does anyone know of any studies supporting this? I'm currently in recurrent loss testing and I'm worried that they won't find anything and won't agree to try this.

unctoothlady · 03-19-2009, 09:34 PM

Tracy--I am taking a 40mg dose per day; just one injection.

Kristi--I will see what I can find.

RunnerDuck · 03-19-2009, 11:52 PM

I had 3 losses in a year. My rpl didn't show anything conclusive. I was a carrier of MTHFR but my homocysteine levels were normal and supposedly this is what really matters. I also has a very slight elevation in one of the anti-cardiolipids - like the cutoff was 9 and I was 10, I am talking THAT slight. I felt very conflicted - part of me wanted a reason so we could prevent it from happening again. Part of me wanted the blood work to come back totally normal so I wouldn't have to feel I could never have a surprise - I didn't want to feel like pregnancy for me would always be medicated, does that make sense? I didn't want to NEED medical intervention if I should happen to O on my own...

So here I got this tiny bit wrong, probably nothing, maybe something, not enough to be aggressive over, according to my clinic.

Rx for me was baby aspirin and folgard (pills, b vitamin complex). I also started to take LARGE amounts of fish oil for the anti-inflammatory, blood thinning qualities. Oh, I was also put on a low dose of prednisone (10mg/day) which is anti-inflammatory. But I started this a few cycles after the folgard and ASA, I think.

I asked if I could do heparin and they said no, they never used it, studies didn't PROVE it worked, it wasn't without risks, etc. I'm not saying I believe or don't... they told me some other stuff I really disagree with, so...

Anyway. I think part of me really wanted to believe there WAS no problem, it was all bad luck, it wouldn't happen again. As much as I wanted to do everything we could, I also wanted to believe we didn't need to. Does that make sense?

In the end I really think my issue was egg quality and bad luck...

I wanted to try heparin, but wasn't allowed. I took some more minor things which may have helped. In the end I got my girls...

Don't know if all that helps or not.

~Traci~ · 03-20-2009, 01:21 AM

RD-Do you remember how much fish oil you took? I'm stocking the medicine cabinet NOW to prepare...

Thanks!

PCOSDC · 03-20-2009, 10:15 AM

I also have had 3 losses in 1 year. I was on aspirin with my last pregnancy and had a 100% normal baby who was growing right on schedule at 12w2d and then no hearbeat at 14 weeks. So that pretty much rules out egg quality and progesterone issues for me. My RE told me he thinks that I have some kind of clotting or immune issue but he has now referred me to a RPL specialist who I'm seeing in April. I just don't believe in doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

RunnerDuck · 03-20-2009, 11:45 AM

Traci - do you belong to Costco? I got the Kirkland Signature fish oil caps as I'd read somewhere they were a good brand... I believe the package says to take 3 a day, I took 9. They come in a huge bottle. I alternated these with Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega which I know is good because I could see results in how it softened up the keratosis pilaris on the backs of my arms - but it's $pricey$. I still take the fish oil as there are heart problems in my family + I am breastfeeding (DHA etc) + I hope for one more + suppsedly it good for IR - I think it's just good stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PCOSDC

I also have had 3 losses in 1 year. I was on aspirin with my last pregnancy and had a 100% normal baby who was growing right on schedule at 12w2d and then no hearbeat at 14 weeks. So that pretty much rules out egg quality and progesterone issues for me. My RE told me he thinks that I have some kind of clotting or immune issue but he has now referred me to a RPL specialist who I'm seeing in April. I just don't believe in doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Now a loss like this I would be more inclined to say was not strictly an egg quality issue. My losses were all somewhat different so it wasn't like I kept going through the same thing and hoping it would turn out differently. My first was a spontanious conception, no help - blighted ovum at 7 weeks or so. The second was a super early loss (chemical preg?) on bravelle - around 5 weeks. The 3rd was conceived on a mix of bravelle and menopur - twins, one didn't really develop, the other developed very slowly and died around 8 weeks. It looked crappy from the start, it's not like it looked great and then failed. So in my case I felt like if we could just figure out how to make a better egg, it would work - and in the end just using menopur is what did it. There were some slight problems with my testing but like I said too slight for me to believe they were the reason I kept m/c'ing.

Unfortunately pregnancy loss is not always an exact science. Sometimes it is due to something you can fix, sometimes it is truly just "bad luck."

PCOSDC · 03-20-2009, 12:04 PM

Yeah my RE was telling me the statistics and it is something like only 50% of women will find out a reason for their reccurent losses and of that 50% only half of them will be able to fix the problem (not real promising but whatever). I am hopeful that I will successfully carry to term. After all my testing I will definitely start high doses of fish oil along with my aspirin if they can't find anything and won't do any treatment.

heidi 1973 · 03-20-2009, 05:06 PM

If you do have auto-immune issues, you are right, it can lead to other auto-immune issues.

I had several doctors do the RPL testing and only on one series did the clotting problem show up.

Also, some clotting issues are only present during pregnancy too.

DEFINITELY PUSH FOR THE LOVENOX OR HEPARINE!!!!

~Traci~ · 03-20-2009, 06:29 PM

No Costco that I know of around us. We don't have enough storage space to belong to a warehouse store! Is it safe to take triple the dosage?

On "The Doctors" today they were talking about Fish Oil supplements & how good they were for heart health & really just about anything else. DD was on fish oil for her first 10 months, don't know why we didn't continue them (they were in China though...can you even get fish oil supplements for babies/children in the US?!?!)!

Here's an article I found about empiric treatment & the use of Heparin/Baby ASA/Progesterone in women w/ RPL:
http://www.healthline.com/blogs/preg...y-loss-10.html

I found other articles but I printed them out w/o saving them. I can look @ them later to see if I can find them online again.

JustinsMama · 03-20-2009, 06:44 PM

Hi ladies, I hope we are all able to figure out our issues and stop suffering this heartache over and over. Just an update on me, I do have 2 known autoimmune conditions, and they both flared up around the time of my latest miscarriage so I still am strongly suspecting autoimmune issues even though it didn't show up in my bloodwork. My bloodwork was done several months ago so possibly it was laying dormant then? My first pregnancy was a success so I know I can carry a baby, I just need to figure out what is going wrong now. I'm currently on break and have an appointment with my RE to talk about getting back in the TTC saddle in a month. When I have my appointment I'm going to push for the lovenox/heparin. Someone on another message board recommended an RE in my area who treats unexplained repeat loss with lovenox/heparin. If my RE won't let me try it, I think I will go to this other RE for a second opinion. Again, I hope and pray we all get some answers and never have to go through this again.