NEW DELHI: Stressed out Indian men have now been found to be behind recurrent miscarriages of their wives, belying the widely-held belief that miscarriages are solely the woman's fault.

But a study of 60 childless men in India, done jointly by the department of anatomy and gynaecology at the country's premier All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has found that most men who had reported consecutive miscarriages by their wives had fragmented or damaged DNA in their sperm caused by excessive free radicals (also known as oxidative stress) caused by infections or an unhealthy lifestyle.

Recurrent miscarriage (RM) is defined as the loss of three or more consecutive pregnancies. Even after extensive investigation, approximately 40% of RM cases remain unexplained and are classified as unexplained RM (URM).