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Updated: Jul 7, 2026
Multiplexed Fluorescent Immunohistochemical Staining of Four Endometrial Immune Cell Types in Recurrent Miscarriage
Published on: August 4, 2021
A firstborn boy is suggestive of a strong prognostic factor in secondary recurrent miscarriage: a confirmatory study
Henriette Svarre Nielsen1, Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen, Astrid Marie Kolte
1The Fertility Clinic, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. henriettesvarrenielsen@hotmail.com
Objective:
To test our previously generated hypothesis that women with secondary recurrent miscarriages with a firstborn boy have a poorer pregnancy prognosis than those with a firstborn girl.
Design:
A study of a retrospective and a prospective cohort.
Setting:
The Danish recurrent miscarriage clinic.
Patient(S):
Two cohorts of 175 and 130 consecutive patients with unexplained secondary recurrent miscarriage referred from 1986 to 1999 (cohort 1) and 2000 to 2005 (cohort 2), respectively.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
The odds ratio (OR) for a live birth in the first pregnancy after referral in those with a firstborn boy compared with a firstborn girl in each of the two cohorts. The corresponding OR for a live birth adjusted for relevant prognostic variables in the combined group of patients.
Result(S):
The crude ORs for a live birth in those with a firstborn boy compared with a firstborn girl were very similar in cohorts 1 and 2 (OR = 0.35, 0.33). In the adjusted analysis only two of five included variables significantly predicted live birth: a firstborn boy and the number of previous miscarriages.
Conclusion(S):
Male sex of the firstborn child is a strong negative prognostic factor in women with secondary recurrent miscarriage. A possible explanation is an abnormal maternal immune response against male-specific minor histocompatibility (HY) antigens.
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