Main findings
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to comprehensively
investigated the prognostic impact of different types of LM on the
subsequent pregnancy outcomes. The
results of this retrospective cohort study indicate a relationship
between a history of LMs and the adverse outcomes during the subsequent
pregnancy. Notably, we observed that women with a previous LM caused by
cervical incompetence, trauma and unexplained factors had a
significantly higher risk of recurrent LM, which was in accordance with
prior studies (3, 12, 13). A history of an unLM was
also significantly associated with an elevated EM rate and a ceLM was
associated with a higher preterm birth rate in subsequent embryo
transfer. More importantly, the live birth rate was resultantly
decreased in both unLM and ceLM group. In addition, the pregnancy
outcomes were similar between feLM group and general IVF group, which
suggesting that one LM because of fetal abnormality was more likely to
be accidental and would not
conspicuously influence the
subsequent pregnancy outcome.