Sle Symptoms In Pregnancy
Inflammation caused by lupus can affect many different body systems including your joints skin kidneys blood cells brain heart and lungs.
Sle symptoms in pregnancy. 1 sle may also be misdiagnosed if only a blood test is used for diagnosis. While most infants born to mothers who have lupus are healthy mothers with lupus as a pre existing disease in pregnancy should remain under medical care until delivery. Most people with sle are able to live a normal life with treatment. Sle symptoms come and go in periods of flares and remission.
Some women report improvement of lupus symptoms during pregnancy. How is sle diagnosed. Lupus is a systemic autoimmune disease that occurs when your body s immune system attacks your own tissues and organs. However over the last 10 20 years advancing technology a better understanding of the disease and changes in medical practice mean that in many cases pregnancy is possible with close supervision and advice will be tailored according to individual cases.
But flares during pregnancy occur in up to 30 of women. In the past women with sle were discouraged from pregnancy due to concern regarding the effects of the disease on the mother and the baby. Systemic lupus erythematosus sle is one of the most common autoimmune disorders that affect women during their childbearing years. Getting pregnant with lupus.
Sle may be difficult to diagnose because its early signs and symptoms are not specific and can look like signs and symptoms of other diseases. Lupus and pregnancy can present some particular challenges for both mother and child. Fertility in sle patients does not appear to be altered by disease itself. Sle is a chronic disease that can have phases of worsening symptoms that alternate with periods of mild symptoms.
Pregnancy in women with sle carries a higher maternal and fetal risk compared with pregnancy in healthy women. Sle increases the risk of spontaneous abortion intrauterine fetal death preeclampsia intrauterine growth retardation and preterm birth the presence of ssa and ssb antibodies can lead to fetal heart block and neonatal lupus. In general women with lupus and in addition hypertension proteinuria and azotemia have an extra increased risk for pregnancy. However a decrease in ovarian reserve can occur in women exposed to cyclophosphamide.
Treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus sle has become more successful over the past few decades making pregnancy a viable option for most women with this disorder. Sle is diagnosed by a health care provider using symptom assessments physical examination x rays and lab tests. Introduction systemic lupus erythematosus sle predominantly affects women of childbearing age.