A Lesser-Known Cause of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
When someone mentions posttraumatic stress disorder, what is the first thing that comes to mind? For most of us, it is combat, car crashes, or various forms of assault because those causes get the most attention within the media. However, there is an exceedingly common cause of PTSD that seldom gets mentioned. I am a PTSD specialist, and until my life became impacted by it, I had not come across this issue a single time in the myriad of research that I have read. That cause is miscarriages.
A miscarriage is the loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week of gestation, and it is pervasive. One in four pregnancies will end in a miscarriage. That comes down to about 1 million miscarriages a year (probably an underestimate). Out of those one million women who experience a miscarriage, 33% of them will go on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder. Given how common an occurrence is, 33% is a staggering figure, and it does not stop there. Almost 10% of men will go on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder following their loss
This adds up to over 410,000 cases of PTSD in America following miscarriages alone (also an underestimate). So why is this not talked about more? Like many mental health issues that are regularly slipping under the radar, stigma is the culprit. When a person experiences a miscarriage, shame and guilt likely follow. What could I have done differently? Is this my fault? Something is wrong with me. The people who find out about their loss will fire off a bunch of questions about all the things they need to get checked and guess what the cause is, further fueling some of the traumatic thought patterns. Given how unpleasant everything about this process is, it is understandable that people don’t want to talk about it.
This is a massive problem for several reasons. Feelings of isolation and guilt are amplified, and mental health symptoms go untreated. Education and identification are crucial to help get these people into treatment for this overlooked problem. Having difficult mental health symptoms following a potentially tragic event like a miscarriage is normal and healthy. A miscarriage is a deeply personal and unique type of grief that creates an emotional whiplash that takes time to heal from. When this grief becomes something that should be treated, it hangs on a few factors. The main one is time. If unpleasant, intrusive symptoms last over a month, impacting your work and home life, considering treatment can reduce the time and severity of your distress.
Unfortunately, this problem is going to continue getting worse. Women are losing access to life-saving medical care as control over their bodies is clawed away in 50% of states. A lack of control and increased uncertainty and risk create a powder keg of lasting and life-limiting trauma symptoms. Awareness is crucial in increasing people’s access to effective treatments that will help us support the women in our lives.