20 of women get pregnant again naturally after a first

20% of women get pregnant again naturally after a first medically assisted pregnancy Franceinfo

“Miracle Babies” may not be that many. One in five women experience spontaneous pregnancy after receiving medical help to conceive.

Géraldine Zamansky, journalist of the Magazine de la Santé on France 5, tells us this amazing piece of information: children born thanks to often difficult treatments could have little brothers and sisters much more easily.

franceinfo: New research points to these spontaneous pregnancies in women who have received medical assistance to give birth to their first child?

In any case, 20% of the women who took medication to become mothers for the first time were spontaneously pregnant. This is the conclusion of a British study published this week. However, the women involved feel they are witnessing an extraordinary story and welcoming a “miracle baby”.

Because her first path to becoming a mother was often very long and there were several failures with in vitro fertilization, for example with IVF. As a rule, these couples had not yet become parents after at least a year without contraception. This is the simplest definition of a fertility problem that leads to specialized services.

But fertility was altered by the treatments during the first pregnancy?

This is part of the hypotheses of Dr. Annette Thwaites, a doctor and researcher at University College London. It was she who determined this 20% rate from 11 studies conducted worldwide, following a total of more than 5,000 women. And she explains that certain reproductive aids actually sometimes have a lasting effect. Stimulating ovulation with hormonal treatments can cause a persistent “wake up.” The same applies to the “triplet”, a kind of “drilling” of the ovaries. The hormonal processes associated with pregnancy would also affect later fertility.

And it’s hard not to think of a “psychological” part?

Of course I quote Dr. Thwaites in his article: “The importance of psychological factors in fertility is well recognized and widely accepted.” However, caution should be exercised with this interpretation. Because before this research, she had conducted 22 personal interviews with the women concerned. And their psychological profiles were very different, except for one common point: the shock of having conceived without treatment. Sometimes too fast for her new family.

dr So Thwaites is glad to have found evidence to support her suspicion: 20% is not uncommon. For them it would be necessary to inform the couples who have “finally” become parents. So that if they wish, even if it seems crazy, they can choose their contraceptive method.

The study