wannaBAmama

my daughter is currently 5 months pregnant. she has been gluten free for 2 years. during the 2 years she has been gluten free she had miscarried 3 times. we still have fingers crossed that she will make it to the birth with this one.

Bette- I am so sorry to hear of your daughter's losses and hope this current pregnancy is successful. If she has been through all the standard blood and structural tests and nothing has been identified as a cause, and has any future unexplained complications, I strongly recommend consulting with the Alan Beer Center. They deal with maternal immune issues and I had 5 first trimester miscarriages before I found them. I am now 22 weeks along with a healthy girl, but I have had to do continuous treatments to keep my immune system in check. My belief is that I should have been off gluten since birth, but did not discover the issue until 18 months ago - so my immune system still flares during pregnancy which requires treatment to keep in check. The treatments are similar to those done for people with other autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and they have made the difference for me - but are not considered standard for pregnancy and most regular doctors do not believe in immune issues as there have not been enough official clinical trials (there is no way I would have signed up for a clinical trial after 5 miscarriages by age 39 and most women who go there are in the same boat as me). Their web site is www.repro-med.net and they consult with patients worldwide and also local patients in the San Francisco Bay Area (where I am). There is also an online yahoo group called "immunologysupport" which if you or your daughter join, you can find OB's and RE's who work with the Beer center doctors (in the "Files" section of the group. It sounds like your daughter is out of the woods for many of the immune flares but if she finds that growth is slowing (IUGR) I strongly recommend giving the Beer center a call as IUGR and low amniotic fluid are common immune issues in the 2nd trimester which if untreated can lead to preterm labor or loss. Sorry to be so graphic but I've learned so much the past year and a half and want to prevent as many immune-related losses as I can by sharing what I've learned.

good luck to you and your daughter!

Ok so husband and I have been trying for 2 years. Was finally diagnosed with PCOS and Hypothyriod. Seem to ovulate every month, but never get pregnant. I am self diagnosed with Celiac or gluten intolerance. I have only been off gluten for 2 weeks and feel wonderful. Also wondering if this may help the infertility issue. How many have had the same problem....and how long did it take before you finally did get pregnant?

Glad you are feeling better after going gluten-free - it literally changed my life. I also self-diagnosed and felt amazing after 4 days. I had 5 unexplained first trimester miscarriages in the 2 years prior to that. I went to a nutritionist, gastroenteroligist and acupuncturist- all 3 said to take a year off before getting pg again but as I was pushing 40 I still tried. Before I went gluten-free I could get pg within a month or two of trying (then miscarry). In the first few months after going gluten-free I could no longer get pg - maybe because my body was busy healing. (I also ended up going dairy-free for about 4 months - then I could slowly tolerate it again). After 7 months gluten-free I got pregnant again, and for the first time I was seeing regular growth on ultrasounds - probably because I am no longer malnourished. But unfortunately I lost that pregnancy at 10weeks from down syndrome (trisomy 21). I then tried an IVF cycle to try to start out with good chromosomes (I had the embryos tested) but that failed. Then while waiting to start my next IVF cycle, about 1 year after going gluten-free, I got pg naturally again. I am now 18 weeks along and amnio says it's a healthy girl. So to make a long story short, my doctors were right - it took me a year to heal and be able to sustain a pregnancy (so far!).