Changes in vaginal bacteria could be associated with spontaneous termination of pregnancy during the first five months.
- About 15% of pregnant women have only one mowing in their lifetime. In general, subsequent pregnancies proceed without difficulty.
- A miscarriage is manifested by vaginal bleeding, blood clots, pain in the lower back, in the abdomen or pelvic cramps.
“Emerging evidence supports an association between the composition of the vaginal microbiota and the risk of miscarriage. However, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood”. This is what scientists from Imperial College London (UK) wrote in a recent study published in the journal BMC Medicine. To determine whether the imbalance of all the microorganisms present in the vagina can cause an unintended termination of pregnancy, the authors conducted their work with 167 pregnant women between March 2014 and February 2019.
Inflammation
The volunteers had had a miscarriage or experienced pain or bleeding during the first trimester of their pregnancy. A total of 93 participants had a pregnancy loss during the first five months and 74 did not and gave birth at term. Of the women who miscarried, 54 had no chromosomal abnormalities in the embryo.
Researchers have found that inflammation caused by changes in vaginal bacteria can lead to miscarriage. “We show that euploid miscarriages (said of cells or individuals that have a normal chromosome number) are associated with a significantly higher prevalence of vaginal microbial communities depleted in Lactobacillus spp. (which prevent the growth and proliferation of bacteria potentially harmful) compared to aneuploid miscarriages”, can we read in the study.
Breakdown of the lining of the uterus
In a statement from the universityDr Karen Grewal, Professor in the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction at Imperial College London, explained that there are many ideas about how this inflammation could lead to pregnancy failure: “for example, certain vaginal bacterial organisms triggering upstream inflammation that causes the lining of the uterus to break down.”
According to scientists, this discovery could pave the way for a preventive treatment against miscarriages. They also clarified that the role of the vaginal microbiota needs to be examined more closely.
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