Are there medical conditions such that it is possible for a woman to become pregnant, but absolutely impossible for her to carry the baby long enough such that a viable birth is possible? I’m not asking about conditions that occur during a pregnancy when something goes wrong guaranteeing a miscarriage. I’m asking about conditions where a doctor would say to a non-pregnant woman (maybe not in these words): “You’re able to get pregnant, but it is absolutely certain that every pregnancy you have will result in a miscarriage.”
Not an absolute, but the classic example is the Rh factor. If the fetus inherits the Rh+ gene from the father and the mother is Rh- the mother will produce antibodies that can attack the fetus and end up with a miscarriage. This was a big concern up until the development of RhoGAM about 50 years ago.
The really insidious thing about Rh pregnancies is that the problem didn’t start until after an Rh- woman had her first Rh+ child. The antibodies built up as a response to that, so an Rh- woman could carry one Rh+ child successfully, then subsequent pregnancies would fail.
A woman with an undeveloped uterus but viable ovaries can get pregnant, but will probably not be able to carry the fetus to viability. There was a case recently where a 9 year old child was raped by her stepfather and got pregnant with twins. A medically advised abortion to save the life of the 9 year old was performed.
There are very few absolute certainties in medicine.
I am not an OB-GYN, but there are situations (i.e. abnormalities of uterine morphology or benign tumors like leiomyomas located in strategic areas) that may make it difficult to impossible to carry a pregnancy successfully to term, as well as medical conditions with the same effect.
Rh incompatibility varies in severity. Sometimes such pregnancies involving production of maternal antibodies can be carried to term with minimal fetal anemia as a result.
This one has a chain of events with some “mostly, sort of” stuff thrown in.
There are various medical conditions that increase the chances of an ectopic pregnancy. These conditions may be found/known to an OBGyn and a woman told her chances of having a successful pregnancy after routine fertilization are somewhere on the scale of not too bad to basically no chance at all. The latter will be assumed from here on.
Note that an ectopic pregnancy in most areas, fallopian tubes, ovaries, abdomen is a really bad thing. A miscarriage sometimes results and if not life saving surgery to save the mother could be needed.
Once in a great while an ectopic pregnancy is implanted in a location where nothing amiss is noticed by the mother during pregnancy. (Note: with ultra-sound being so common, one has to add to the scenario that this was not done in this case.)
The labor completes to full term but normal birth is not possible.
I have read of a case where a mother had an ectopic pregnancy where the placenta attached to the intestines. The mother went full term. They knew by then what was going on. It took heroic measures to perform a C-section and save the mother. Massive bleeding occurred. The fact that the mother lived was quite notable.
These sort of things are so rare that the Wikipedia article lists 3 cases of a good outcome of ectopic pregnancies. (One involving triplets, one of which was ectopic.) I.e., if a doctor succeeds in a case like this, there’s a note going into a medical journal about it.
The rest of the time the outcome is not good for at least of the woman or fetus.
A friend of mine had multiple miscarriages before being diagnosed with an incompetent cervix. The fetus was literally falling out of the bottom of her womb as her cervix was opening up too soon. She did eventually have a child, but it involved the cervix being stitched up and a lot of monitoring and extra care.
Although rare, it is possible for a woman to get pregnant after a hysterectomy. AIUI the fetus attaches in the abdomen, likely to the woman’s intestines.
I know someone who required estrogen therapy to prevent miscarriage. Without the hormone shots, the miscarriage was guaranteed. Her third successful pregnancy also required complete bed rest for the last three months and stitches in her cervix.
Could a blood clotting disorder result in this outcome? I lost a cousin in utero as a result of his mother’s previously-undiagnosed blood clotting disorder.
I recalled the phrase “she can’t carry boys/girls” and went searching to see if there’s any basis in medicine for this being true, and what might be the cause(s) in cases of women always miscarrying a child of a particular gender, and stumbled across the Wikipedia article on recurrent miscarriage Recurrent miscarriage - Wikipedia
This seems to have many explanations for why a woman might conceive but always (or often) miscarry.
That’s not really what I was asking about. If a pregnancy with an underdeveloped uterus made a woman (ignoring aged-based terms) permanently unable to give birth, then your example would be pertinent. I don’t think a single example with no assessment of future motherhood prospects can be qualified as a general medical condition.
That’s interesting in a bizarre new piece of trivia kind of interesting that I personally like learning about. However, I’m guessing that the likelihood of such a pregnancy occurring is extremely unpredictable?
Thank you. Just to provide a fuller answer to future readers of this thread, and me, could you please provide an example of a medical condition that would be extremely likely to cause an ectopic pregnancy?
The gene that causes achondroplasia is dominant. If the child inherits the gene from one parent, the child will be a dwarf. If the child inherits the gene from both parents, the fetus can survive in the womb, but will die after birth.
One of my relatives had 2 abortions, back in the 1960’s. She had a kidney condition serious enough that the doctors advised she would not be able to survive carrying a full term baby.
Not a matter of miscarriages, this one is “can get pregnant but should never ever”.
My sister in law has such horrible scoliosis that when she was born her parents were warned she might be unable to walk. Every time she gets a new doctor, doc takes a look at her back or at her X-rays and exclaims “and you walk!?” She hasn’t worn it for almost 30 years, but when one of our former schoolmates can’t place her, “the girl with the neck brace” works every time; for almost 20 years she wore corsets and that brace to help her posture. She does yoga and stretches like other people go to the bathroom; one of the things she looks for instinctively when entering a new place is an open space large enough for her exercises. We’re talking about a woman whose background pain would be considered unbearable by most healthy people.
She was told that with her spine, pregnancy would be beyond inadvisable; it would have a high probability of killing her (and the baby) or leaving her paralized. My Littlest Nephew is adopted.
Pelvic inflammatory disease is associated with a very high risk of future infertility and tubal pregnancies, due to scarring of the tubes. It’s usually the result of untreated gonorrhea or chlamydia, and is more common nowadays than most people would think.
Women who had repeated miscarriages and no evidence of problems with her organs, like an incompetent cervix, might have some kind of recessive genetic disorder, as does her husband (or other partners) that is incompatible with intrauterine life.
Jeebus I hate just the scrape of a Pap smear on my cervix. The thought of STITCHES in the damn thing had me involuntarily crossing amd clenching my legs.