Objective: The study was designed to compare the follicular phase of women with recurrent pregnancy loss and a healthy control group. It is possible that a defective or aberrant follicular phase may be associated with poor oocyte quality leading to a production of an embryo with compromised quality and hence early pregnancy loss.
Design: Prospective case-control study.
Setting: A tertiary care hospital of Sheffield, UK.
Patient(s): Thirty-four women with recurrent miscarriage and 10 women with no previous history of miscarriage and regular menstrual cycles (control group) were recruited.
Intervention(s): The characteristics studied included Doppler assessment of blood flow to the follicle and the endometrium. Simultaneously, serum concentrations of biochemical markers such as anti-Müllerian hormone, inhibin B, FSH, LH, and P were compared in the two groups.
Main outcome measure(s): Differences in the two groups.
Result(s): We were unable to detect significant differences in various biochemical and ultrasound measurements in the follicular phase between women with recurrent miscarriage and a control group; however, the expected correlation between ovarian and pituitary hormones, which was observed in the control group, was absent in women with recurrent miscarriage.
Conclusion(s): There may be subtle derangements of the feedback mechanism responsible for regulation of follicle development in this group of women. However, there were no obvious differences in the follicular phase of women with recurrent miscarriage and a healthy control group.