ABSTRACT
A cause is identified in only around 50% of all cases of recurrent miscarriage (RM), and for many women the lack of an identifiable cause following investigation can provoke significant emotional disturbance in an age when answers to common medical problems are expected. Spontaneous miscarriage is the most common complication of pregnancy, and up to 25% of all women are affected by a single, one-off miscarriage, the cause of which will remain unknown. The causes and risk factors that are explored are all known or suspected to play a part in some cases of miscarriage, but for an individual woman it is unlikely that she will be able to know for sure what led to her spontaneous loss unless specific medical investigations are undertaken, and even then there may not be an answer. Trisomies arise from abnormal meiosis in the egg prior to fertilisation, resulting in fetal cells having three copies of one type of chromosome.
