Progesterone Recommended by NICE to Prevent Early Miscarriage

Guidance, from the health watchdog NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) states that women who experience bleeding in early pregnancy and have had at least one miscarriage should be treated with the hormone progesterone.

This is based on research suggesting the treatment could lead to 8,450 more births each year in the UK.

About one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage – the vast majority in the first few months.

How does it work?

Progesterone helps prepare the womb for the baby, and the trial found that it is more effective for women who have had more miscarriages.

About one in five women have bleeding or spotting in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

This usually does not cause problems, but it should always be checked by a doctor or midwife to be safe.

Some women may have a “threatened miscarriage,” which means they experience bleeding while still being pregnant.

Most are told to go home and wait and see what happens next but the new National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance recommends using progesterone into the vagina twice a day.

A trial carried out by researchers at the Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Research which the new guidance is based on, found that progesterone didn’t make much of a difference for women who just had bleeding and no previous miscarriages.

But the more miscarriages a woman had suffered, the more effective progesterone was.

However, it is important to realise that only some miscarriages can be prevented by progesterone as there are other causes for miscarriages.

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists president Dr Edward Morris said: “It is positive that NICE has acknowledged the latest evidence.

“We do, however, still have a way to go before understanding the best treatments for women experiencing unexplained pregnancy loss and would welcome further research in this area.”