New findings could add to the despair of couples who lose multiple pregnancies – but experts warned against letting it cause alarm.
The German research links multiple miscarriage to a woman facing a massively increased risk of having heart attack later in life.
British experts say that sometimes undiagnosed heart disease is a reason for a woman repeatedly losing a baby – and this may explain the findings.
The findings come from an analysis of more than 11,000 women taking part in a European research project on lifestyle, known as EPIC.
Writing in the journal Heart, the researchers say they identified some 69 women who had miscarried more than three times. These suffered a nine times increased risk of having a heart attack over a ten year period. Researchers said these women tended to be heavier than others and to be physically inactive.
A single stillbirth was linked to a three and half times increased risk. Nearly 3,000 women had miscarried at least once.
Researcher Dr Elham Kharazmi, of the German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg, Germany, says the findings suggest women who suffer repeated miscarriages should be monitored for heart disease risk.
But Judy O’Sullivan, a specialist nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "While this is certainly an interesting observation it gives no proven explanation for an increase in heart attack risk. It’s not simply a case of saying multiple miscarriages increase your risk of a heart attack – lots of other factors come into play.
“It’s known in some cases of multiple miscarriages that the women have previously undiagnosed heart and circulatory disease, or significant risk factors for the disease, so they may have an increased heart attack risk which is unrelated to the pregnancy."
Heart December 2 doi 10.1136/hrt.2010.202226
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