The role of maternal diabetes in repetitive spontaneous abortion

The role of maternal diabetes as a cause of repetitive early pregnancy loss was evaluated by examining the reproductive performance of 154 diabetic patients in 489 pregnancies. The overall incidence of spontaneous abortion among gestational diabetics (12.7%) and frank diabetics (12.2%) was not significantly different from that of matched controls (10.9% and 14.5%, respectively). The frequencies of repetitive (two or more) miscarriage were also similar among both gestational diabetics versus matched controls (10.6% versus 9.1%) and frank diabetics versus matched controls (14.6% versus 16.7%). It is concluded that diabetes per se is not a frequent cause of repetitive pregnancy loss and that routine glucose tolerance testing is not indicated in the evaluation of patients with a history of habitual abortion.