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A MyLupusTeam Member asked a question 💭

R children born wit pacemaker common wit lupus

December 20, 2014
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A MyLupusTeam Member

My understanding is SLE (especially people who are SSA positive) comes with an increased risk for the fetus to have a congenital heart block which then puts the fetus at an even increased risk of other heart conditions.

A fetal echocardiogram would be performed at some point during the pregnancy and weekly / biweekly ultrasounds to monitor the condition. They will also monitor for hydrops which could indicate heart failure.

But as you will gather here plenty of women have lupus and pregnancy with no impact on their child. And then you have women like me who are SSA positive, do have antiphospholipid syndrome, raynauds syndrome, uncontrolled hypothyroidism... etc etc where the odds are not in my favor to have biological kids. That is less to do with a correctable heart defect and more to do with the high rates of miscarriage and still birth with any one of those. If you are considering becoming pregnant in the future consider talking to your rheumatologist and your family practitioner.

December 21, 2014

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