Some women who have been witnessed failed IVF treatments or suffering from repeated miscarriages can get benefit from steroid treatment. These facts were revealed during a conference in Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Siobhan Quenby, of the University of Liverpool and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital, said that it was found during a recent study that three quarters of women who previously failed to conceive get benefited from steroid treatment.

From News-Medical.Net:

Dr. Siobhan Quenby, of the University of Liverpool and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital, says that tests involving 120 women had identified natural killer cells as a cause of miscarriages and failed IVF embryo implants.

While such natural but potentially deadly cells are beneficial in most of the body because they can destroy infected or malignant cells, in the uterus they have been found to promote rapid growth of blood vessels when present in high numbers.

These blood vessels then transport additional oxygen-bearing blood which can cause miscarriages or prevent embryos implanting.

Steroids prescribed to 40 women, who had suffered multiple miscarriages, resulted in three quarters of them successfully giving birth.

The steroid treatment has been shown to reduce the level of natural killer cells in the uterus, and this is thought to increase the chances of an embryo going to full term.

Dr. Quenby says currently there is no treatment for the thousands of women around the world who are desperate because they keep miscarrying for no reason.

She says there is a massive and desperate need for a treatment and suggests that a third of miscarriages could be prevented.

It was also suggested that steroid treatment is beneficial even for reducing the level of natural killer cells in the uterus with an aim to enhance the chances of an embryo going to the full term.

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