Previous recommendations said that women should wait at least three months before trying to conceive again after a miscarriage. However, a new study from the National Institutes of Health shows that women who conceive within three months after losing an early pregnancy have more chances of delivering a live birth.
Early pregnancy in this case is defined as less than 20 weeks of gestation. The new study focuses on when couples should begin attempting to conceive as opposed to when a woman should get pregnant after a miscarriage, which is what previous studies have dwelled on.
"Couples often seek counseling on how long they should wait until attempting to conceive again," lead study author Enrique Schisterman, chief of the Epidemiology Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said in a news release. "Our data suggests that women who try for a new pregnancy within three months can conceive as quickly, if not quicker, than women who wait for three months or more."
The researchers followed 1,083 women, 99 percent of whom suffered from miscarriage at less than 20 weeks of pregnancy and had no complications, for six menstrual cycles. Those who got pregnant within that time period were followed to find out the outcome of their pregnancy.
The study results showed that 76 percent of the women attempted to conceive within three months of miscarriage while the others waited for three months or more. Among those, almost 70 percent got pregnant and 53 percent achieved live birth. On the other hand, only 51 percent of those who waited got pregnant.
However, the researchers acknowledge that some couples need emotional healing after a pregnancy loss.
"While we found no physiological reason for delaying attempts at conception following a pregnancy loss, couples may need time to heal emotionally before they try again," study author Karen Schliep said in the news release.
"Our study supports the hypothesis that there is no physiologic evidence for delaying pregnancy attempt after an early loss," the authors concluded.
The study was published online Jan. 7 in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
