Doctors at Care Fertility, the biggest private provider of IVF treatment, found the faulty gene, known as C4M2, in 44 per cent of their patients compared with just 15 per cent of the general population.

Prof Simon Fishel, managing director, said the gene could be a major cause of recurrent miscarriage.

With proper treatment the number of couples having healthy babies increased to 38 per cent, a similar proportion to other infertility patients of the same age.

The findings were published in the journal Reproductive Biomedicine Online.

The fault means the embryo is unlikely to implant in the womb and if it does it may do so insufficiently, causing late miscarriage or growth problems in the baby.

If the women is the carrier of the faulty gene she is also at risk of complications such as blood clots.

Prof Fishel, lead author on the publication, said Very recently a new genetic marker has been found that predisposes couples to the risk of miscarriage, which we call the C4/M2 variant.

"In addition to the risk of implantation failure and miscarriage, it is linked to blood clotting disorders, pre-eclampsia and low birth weight babies.

"What I do find remarkable, is that in the population of patients studied, the man has the same chance as the woman to pass on this variant to the developing embryo and disturb successful implantation. Where the genetic variant exists, the chance of delivering a baby is reduced to one in four that of fertile couples."

Care Fertility now intend to screen selected patients for the faulty gene so they can be treated appropriately.

Link:
Faulty gene is a major cause of repeated miscarriages, say experts

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