£2m drug trial aims to end miscarriage misery

WOMEN are clamouring to join a drug trial that might end the heartbreak of repeated miscarriages, scientists said yesterday.

Professor Siobhan Quenby said her study would involve 3,000 women around the UK.

The £1.9million trial is aimed at establishing that recurrent miscarriage is the result of endometritis.

The condition causes inflammation of the womb lining and it is believed that this leads to recurrent miscarriage.

The researchers suspect that endometritis may be caused by an imbalance of bacteria that live in the reproductive tract – including the womb, fallopian tube, cervix and vagina.

It is thought that treating the condition with antibiotics may kill disruptive bacteria and allow healthy bacteria to grow.

The trial will involve treating women who have had two or more miscarriages with a 14day course of doxycycline against a placebo – a sugar pill.

Doctors in Germany and the US prescribe antibiotics to women who have recurrent miscarriages, although the treatment has never been proven to work scientifically.

Professor Quenby, of the University of Warwick, claimed the results of the trial will also shed light on unexplained infertility, as inflammation of the uterus may be a factor.

She said: ‘Our aim is to try to improve the womb before you get pregnant. Most miscarriages occur within the first trimester [12 weeks] of pregnancy and our aim is to see a reduction in these early miscarriages.’

Speaking at the British Science Festival, held in Coventry and Warwickshire, Professor Quenby added: ‘I have people coming from all round the country to come and see me entirely to be in my trial.

‘It just shows you how important it is – the idea of [continually] losing babies and there is nothing they can do is awful. But if you can be in a trial, that is at least doing something.’

Women who are interested in taking part in the study should speak to their GP and ask to be referred for the CERM Chronic Endometritis and Recurrent Miscarriage trial.