Two factors have changed the situation: assisted procreation techniques have improved and new drugs have arrived for the disease
According to data from the National Register of Medically Assisted Procreation of the Higher Institute of Health, the fertility rate of Italian women is 15%. From the maximum of 1.46 children per woman in 2010 we have dropped to the minimum of 1.32 in 2018, with a birth rate which, according to Istat, has fluctuated around 7% in the last two years, while during the economic boom of the 1950s it was between 18 and 19%. In the United States, where currently about 11%, a study just published on Neurology Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation offers new hopes for a more serene pregnancy for a particular group of women, those affected by multiple sclerosis
(acronym SM), for whom motherhood represents a problem within the problem.
Assisted fertilization
The study by researchers from the American Universities of California, Pennsylvania and Northwestern University of Illinois, together with those from Brigham Women’s Hospital in Boston, directed by Edith Graham, indicates that among women with MS the use of assisted fertilization is among the lowest in the female populationalmost as if they renounced that desire for motherhood that drives every woman to fight against adverse fate. For 11 years, 65 women aged between 18 and 45 were followed up who underwent the various types of stimulation available today, from oral hormonal stimulation to the most recent IVF, ovarian hyperstimulation with reimplantation of fertilized oocytes in vitro. The result was clear: there was no increase in disease recurrences.
Interference
If by now established that pregnancy does not interfere with the health of the mother with MS and the unborn child, including the very small risk of transmitting the disease to him, the fears of these women often concern the methods of giving birth and breastfeeding due to the interference of the drugs they take with the anesthesia and the purity of their milk. These drugs have not yet been approved for use in pregnancy, with the consequent risk of exacerbations, which varies from case to case. In about a third of women (20-30%) in fact this suspension of treatment can lead, especially in the puerperium, i.e. up to 3 or 4 months after delivery, to recurrences.
Terrible choice
Many of them thus find themselves faced with a cruel crossroads: having a child at the risk of reactivating the disease or giving up motherhood. And also for those who wanted to tempt fate by pursuing a delayed motherhood, five old studies indicated that with assisted reproduction the risk of recurrence goes up. After more recent studies had already contradicted these results, now American researchers have completely debunked them demonstrating that two factors have changed the situation: on the one hand assisted fertilization techniques have improved and on the other new drugs for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
Treatments of new life
The desire of every woman to become a mother therefore becomes possible also for those suffering from multiple sclerosis: The advent of new monoclonal drugs (so-called biological) today offers a broad spectrum of efficacy and safety – says Professor Alfredo Berardelli of the Sapienza University of Rome and president of the Italian Society of Neurology (Sin) – which makes it possible to individualize the treatment for each of the 130 thousand patients with MS in our country. Their early use allows a significant improvement in the prognosis from the very beginning, limiting clinical relapses, the appearance of new inflammatory lesions and the progression of disability, also improving cognitive functions. As American colleagues indicate – concludes Berardelli -, the effective coverage offered by these new treatments, together with the improvement of those of assisted procreation, also promises patients with MS the joy of a more serene motherhood.
March 26, 2023 (change March 26, 2023 | 16:23)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
#Assisted #reproduction #safe #women #multiple #sclerosis