Pathologist Question

stephjp · #1 January 27th, 2010, 09:29 AM

SO when I m/c a few weeks ago I was in my Dr.'s office and they were able to take the baby from my cervix. Because I was in office at the time of m/c they were able to send the tissue off to a pathologist for testing which to my knowledge is not something that is generally done on the first m/c...Here is my question...
1. A friend of mine told me that she knew someone who had a m/c and when their results came back from the pathologist they were able to tell them what sex their baby would have been based on the chromosones the baby had...I was only about 5 weeks when I m/c and supposedly this girl was too but I was wondering if that has been the case for any of you...
2. Also, how long did it take for your results to come back and
3. can they tell what caused the m/c no matter what the cause was?

Thank you ladies for all being so wonderful and helpful

lex1078 · #2 January 27th, 2010, 10:11 AM

Here are some answers for you:

I had my first miscarriage last year and testing was done to find out why. I was 9.5 weeks when I had a D&C.

Question #1: Don't know about the sex, maybe they can tell if it was boy/girl by the chromosones. That's a great question and I will ask next time I'm at the OB's if they know.

Question #2: It took about 6 weeks to get results.

Question #3: I don't think they can always give you an answer. You were early but there may be a chance that they know. I hope they do. I miscarried due to Trismony 22.

Hopefully some other girls will be able to have some answers for you too.

Kary♥RN · #3 January 27th, 2010, 10:50 AM

The answers are Yes, 2weeks +, and No..

If they run tests.. the results will come back with wether the baby was chromosomally normal, and with this it will tell the sex. (My Dr didn't tell.. My DH was in the room and didn't want to know I work in the hospital my test was done in.. so I looked.)

Some of the tests can come back in as little as 2 weeks (this was my case my little girl was trisomony 22) So the Dr gave us the results.. since that is incapatable with life.. hence the reason I lost that pregnancy.

And can this tell WHY?? NO.. only if the baby comes back with chromosomal isseus.. can they tell you if that is the only reason.....

I have had three m/c..... since our testing has become.. WE have some problems.. I also have a MTHFR mutation (a clotting issue).. and dh has MI... his SA came back low count, low morphology, and low mobility.... So any of these could have caused my three...

I hope this helps.. HUGS!

momof6lopez · #4 January 27th, 2010, 11:14 AM

I agree with Kary. Unfortunately if the baby is chromsonally correct, they cannot tell you why the m/c happend. I was 9.5 wks along, and had the testing, took 8wks for results, and did confirm it was a girl, chromosonally correct.

On an interesting note, my RE told me that when the testing comes back showing a girl, that he cannot base his results on that very much. He says that their is a 50% chance that the lab "grew" "cultured" my cells, instead of the baby's, and that why it would show a chromasonaly correct baby, because Iam chromosonally correct. If it shows as a boy, you have more of a chance at answers........I never new this until I consulted a RE.

farasha · #5 January 27th, 2010, 01:39 PM

Everyone gave a lot of help, so I'll just add to the biology part of all this...
And absolutely right about accidentally culturing the mom's cells! Although, I didn't know that happened so often!

Just a note about the chromosome analysis (karyotype) -
They usually do not do this on all miscarriages, but unfortunately wait till a second miscarriage to do this testing because it's pricey. That's the only way to tell the sex of the baby at that stage - and if they've doen the karyotype, they can definitely tell. So, your doctor may or may not have done that test. I specifically asked for it to be done after my second loss so that I could see if there was a genetic problem (there wasn't - it was a boy - and that's how I knew to ask for more testing). Usually, they always assume the first miscarriage is because of a genetic reason and that's why they don't test the first one. The truth is, it's a genetic reason 70% of the time - which is a lot, but not 100%.

What they do do, on all tissue from D&Cs no matter what number miscarriage it was, is a pathology test. That just means they check to see what kind of tissue they got (placenta, sac, etc) and it helps tell them if they got all the tissue or if something was missing. It usually doesn't help to determine cause of miscarriage. Later on in pregnancy, pathology could probably give hints to if something was wrong with the placenta or something - not sure.

The next time you speak to your doctor, you can ask if they did a chromosome analysis/karyotype in addition to the pathology report. Unfortunately, if they didn't, it's probably too late. I think the sample needs to be fairly new to do the culture.

HUGS hun!

.:Shortcake:. · #6 January 27th, 2010, 02:21 PM

Yes I found out mine was a boy, I was 13 weeks and they could not tell me why I had a m/c. Although they did say he was perfect in every way. And it took about 5-6 weeks to find out the results. I am so sorry your going through this. Hugs.

Halloween81 · #7 January 27th, 2010, 07:56 PM

Everyone answered your questions but I just wanted you to know that in my area (and in other areas) it takes a long time for the test results to come back. My m/c was in sept and I was just contacted by my doctors office with the results a couple of days ago (4 months later). They told me that the results could take 4 - 6 months to come back - hopefully it doesnt take that long for you.