Zuckerbergs and PFC Raise Awareness about Miscarriage

Chan and Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, know about this from personal experience. Chan, 30, had three miscarriages during their three-year marriage. On his Facebook page, Zuckerberg described how lonely and disheartening this was. By sharing what they’ve undergone, they hope to start a more open dialogue on the topic of miscarriage.

Pacific Fertility Center’s Carolyn Givens, MD, helped start the conversation. An expert on miscarriage, she was interviewed by ABC7 KGO News for the story about the Zuckerbergs. Dr. Givens explained that miscarriage is very common, often a way for nature to take care of embryos that are chromosomally abnormal or unable to sustain a normal pregnancy.

Fortunately, there are steps prospective parents can take to lower the risk of miscarriage. An obvious one is to attempt childrearing earlier because the risk of miscarriage increases with age.

Another is to use comprehensive chromosome screening (CCS) to identify an embryo or embryos with the very best chance of producing a healthy pregnancy. As early adopters of this highly sensitive genetic technology, PFC has used CCS with patients to reliably test all 23 pairs of chromosomes for abnormalities before the transfer of any embryos. CCS not only helps prevent miscarriages and chromosomal abnormalities, it improves implantation, pregnancy rates, and the health of babies.

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