Reproductive Aging and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss: Establishing A Research Advisory Board

If a couple experiences ≥ 2 pregnancy losses before 24 weeks gestation, it is called recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). Losing pregnancies doesn’t affect only the body, it also means losing the hopes a couple has for their future child. Getting older increases the chances of pregnancy loss. Over the past 10 years, the RPL Research Program at BC Women’s Hospital has grown, however, there’s still much we don’t know about RPL. We believe that it’s important to include the community in RPL research so that the research focuses on what patients truly care about. Our aim is to create an RPL research advisory board to involve patient partners in our research program. This board will include patient partners, community organizations, researchers, and medical leads who will meet 5 times over a year, with many activities outside the meetings. They’ll decide what topics are most important and develop an application for another funding opportunity to study them more. The board will engage more community members by sharing research findings and shining light on RPL research. Involving trainees in our work will help develop their skills. This project improves our research program by including an advisory board at the heart of our work.