[biolotthek]

> to understand why so many pregnancies fail and how we might be able to prevent that from happening

Are we sure that's a good idea? I've read that one of the reason for early pregnancy failure is that the embryo is not fit enough and it would be a waste of time and resources to commit to it.

Another very counterintuitive finding is that if you try to implant embryos in various tissues (brain, liver, ...), the one in which is the hardest is the uterus! Because it's actively fighting against the embryo.

[shash]

The question is why is the embryo not “fit enough”. One way to increase the chance of success is by making the embryo “more fit”, but that requires an understanding of what that definition of fitness is, and that is what I understand this study is about.

[colechristensen]

The genetic recombination process often results in failure, shuffling genes around and associated mutations breaks important things and the embryo gets to the point where it can no longer survive. It is sort of the first filter in evolution, surviving the single-cell to infant process.

[nomel]

This is making an extreme assumption that miscarriages aren't an expected, or required, phenomenon.

[shash]

No assumptions. Just a different way to study a phenomenon...

[pyuser583]

That might be true, but I know for a fact it’s a truism that doctors tell women to not feel as bad about miscarriages.

My wife has had multiple miscarriages, to the point where it’s expected. Until doctors are informed of her history, they always say “the embryo wasn’t healthy enough to survive on its own …”

My wife has a number of hormonal issues, but doctors can’t find a single diagnosis.

But it’s certainly not weak embryos.

[jvanderbot]

We've swung from "God's will" to "Fitness" a bit prematurely. Sure, there are many underlying causes for miscarriages (which we've experienced in our house, as well), but the sense I got from talking to our docs was that luck has as much to do with it as anything. The signals and systems that benefitted homonids a million years ago still affect our chances in the modern world, and are full of false positives and negatives, and luck (blood type, etc) plays an outsized role.

[pyuser583]

My wife has always had insanely irregular cycles. We ask the docs if that could be part of the problem and they’re like “maybe.”

The insane thing is that insurance doesn’t cover fertility treatments.

So she can ask about her irregular cycles, but the moment she asks if this will interfere with having a baby, the doctors say “if I answer that question, I’ll have to code this appointment in a way insurance won’t cover.”

Apparently in the eyes of insurance companies, a 30 year old woman who can’t get pregnant is perfectly healthy.

[TEP_Kim_Il_Sung]

Could it be nutrition?

[pyuser583]

Not in the generic “eat better” sense.

There are some diets that can affect hormones/cycles, but it’s eating special foods, not laying off the ice cream.

[TEP_Kim_Il_Sung]

I was referring to vitamins and minerals kind of nutrition, not dieting. Forming a baby takes ungodly amounts of minerals.

[nomel]

This is not true, in this context. 75% happen within the first two weeks. No excess nutrition is required in that time. Folic acid is important, but someone having multiple miscarriages, under the care of a doctor, will obviously be taking the recommended supplements.

[hombre_fatal]

This sounds like the sort of giddy overfocusing we do when we project a certain lifestyle (usually one we already live, ourself) as a cure-all onto everything else including people we know nothing about.

I remember being jacked at 20 years old, eating spinach and egg whites at the university cafeteria, looking somberly around at everyone—who I'm sure didn't do 100 air-squats each day—while they devoured fried chicken strips. I felt bad for them. How many ailments could we fix if everyone did 20 push-ups when they woke up in the morning and then snorted a cup of oatmeal? Real cocksure of myself, I'd shrug and think what a shame.

What I'm trying to say is, did OP's wife try doing pull-ups while eating paleo?

[parineum]

Yes. Next question.

[seydor]

Presumably if they understand the whole process they can move it outside the body in a controlled and non-rejecting artifical womb