Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease characterized by an attack of the nervous system by cells of the immune system. The symptoms can be numerous (sensory, visual, motor, sexual, balance disorders, etc.) and vary from one patient to another, depending on the location of the lesions. They usually appear in flare-ups that occur over a few hours or days and disappear completely or partially within a few weeks. In some cases, the disease is progressive, resulting in a disability that worsens over time.
MS, obstacle to motherhood for 1 in 3 women
Without knowing why, 3/4 of people suffering from MS are women. However, according to a survey carried out in 2017 among several hundred patients in Europe, 37% of them would have given up having a child or, at the very least, deferred their pregnancy plans because of the disease.
However, pleads Dr. Olivier Heinzlef, head of the neurology center at the Poissy Saint-Germain-en-Laye hospital center and president of the French League against multiple sclerosis., “MS and motherhood are not incompatible. A pregnancy with MS is normal pregnancy.” Provided, he underlines, to anticipate it.
“Most of the time, the desire for pregnancy appears when the disease is already there and the woman is undergoing treatment. discuss with your neurologist, before conception, the need or not to continue the treatment. Some do not pose a risk to the fetus and the woman can continue to take them. Others, on the other hand, should not be taken during pregnancy. The neurologist can choose to temporarily interrupt this treatment or replace it with another.
Once the pregnancy has started, continues Dr. Heinzlef, “we advise women to be monitored and to give birth in a level 3 maternity unit. Not because the pregnancy is more at risk, but because the staff have more usually have this type of pregnancy. With MS, the epidural is not contraindicated, but an anesthesiologist who is not familiar with this pathology could, for example, be reluctant to perform it.”
During pregnancy, the disease is silent
MS is caused by an overly aggressive immune system that turns against the patient’s own cells. However, during pregnancy, the immune system is partly inactivated so that it does not attack the fetus. “It has long been said that the best treatment for multiple sclerosis is pregnancy! And it is true that, in the vast majority of cases, MS symptoms regress during this time“, says Dr. Heinzlef.
On the other hand, the risk of a flare-up increases in the three months following childbirth, hence the need for good follow-up from the end of pregnancy. Nevertheless, reassures the neurologist, “in the long term, the fact of having had a pregnancy does not modify the evolution of the disease.” And to conclude, “multiple sclerosis has no negative consequence on pregnancy and pregnancy has no negative consequence on sclerosis.” A good reason to take the plunge for those who wish to give life.
Read also :
New treatments for multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis: the first signs 5 years before the disease
“I did not want the disease to prevent me from being a mother”
Kitty (39 years old), mother of Angel, 4 years old
My multiple sclerosis wasn’t diagnosed until 2014, several years after my first flare-up, but that didn’t hinder my desire for motherhood. I didn’t want the disease to gain on this ground, to prevent me from becoming a mother. As at that time, I was not taking treatment for my MS, we said with my companion at the time that we had to take advantage of it to have a child. I got pregnant easily and had a dream pregnancy. We and Angel’s dad separated when Angel was only 4 months old and I have been raising him alone ever since. It’s not always easy, but not necessarily more difficult than for any single mom. It is true that because of my illness, I am sometimes very tired. Sometimes I have very bad legs, which prevents me from playing football with him. If I didn’t have children, I could stay in bed. But I wouldn’t be any less exhausted. In fact, my son is my strength. It is he who gives me the desire to move forward and fight.
“My daughter is my greatest gift”
Anne (41 years old), mother of Bleuenn, 10 years old
I have lived with multiple sclerosis since the age of 20, long before the question of having a child appeared. When it happened, I talked to my gynecologist and my neurologist and they decided to stop the treatment I was taking, because it would have been toxic for the baby. After a year, I still wasn’t pregnant, so I was prescribed hormones. Unfortunately, these accelerated the evolution of the disease to such an extent that I had to undergo several chemotherapies. I got pregnant a month after the last round of chemo and my pregnancy was wonderful. I was in great shape. The delivery also went very well and I was even able to breastfeed my daughter. Today I am in a wheelchair. Without the hormone treatment, the chair probably wouldn’t have arrived so quickly. Still, I don’t regret anything. My daughter is my greatest gift. And then, the handicap, it is especially in the glance of the others. For me it is not an obstacle. Bleuenn’s friends often even envy my daughter for all the things we do together!
“Eva makes me forget everything, even the pain”
Sonia (32 years old), mother of Eva, 1 year old
With my companion, we already wanted to start a family when in January 2018 I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The arrival of the disease in my life caused a big questioning of our project, I isolated myself, I was very depressed. And then, after a few months, thanks to my friends and my companion, I managed to climb the slope. We decided to have a child anyway and I got pregnant in September of the same year. Due to my pregnancy plans, I only started disease-modifying treatment for MS after the end of it. This is an injection that I receive every 15 days and which, for 2 days, causes a very intense flu-like state. So I can’t take care of my daughter and it’s my partner who takes over. For this, he had to organize himself professionally. Reconciling work, the baby and illness causes a lot of fatigue, but Eva makes me forget everything, even the pain. And today, we want to give him a little brother or a little sister!
“I wanted a baby at all costs”
Anne-Marie (33 years old), mother of Diego, 5 years old
I had my first attack of multiple sclerosis when I was only 19 years old and it was extremely violent. Everything was affected: sight, sensitivity, walking… I was hospitalized for a month and a half and then went to a rehabilitation center. My MS is progressive, with each new attack, I do not recover everything and despite the many treatments I have had, the disease has not stabilized. For these reasons, my neurologist was against the idea of me being pregnant and my husband was also a little reluctant. But I wanted a baby at all costs, I told them that I would rather be in a wheelchair thanks to my child than because of the disease. It took me a little over a year to get pregnant, and despite being nauseous, despite having MS flare-ups between the 7th and 8th month, I felt like I was alive again. Today, Diego is 5 years old. He knows that I am sick and he is very caring about that. True happiness despite all the worries of illness, are her little arms around my neck, hugging me tenderly.
“Having children forces you to be combative against the disease”
Claire-Marie (37), mother of Elise, 10, and Alice and Gabriel (9 months)
Multiple sclerosis came into my life shortly after Élise was born. Today, I am divorced from her father and, when I met my new companion, we did not plan to have other children, especially since he has a very demanding job. Then the urge came. To carry out this project, I had to stop my MS treatment and I even had several blood tests to check that there was no trace of the drug in my body before starting a pregnancy. It was only 7 months later that I was able to remove my IUD. And when I got pregnant, we found out that it wasn’t one, but two babies I was expecting! Alice and Gabriel were born on December 28, 2019 at 6.5 months pregnant. Like all premature babies, they were in neonatology, the beginnings were difficult, but today they are doing very well and so am I. Having children forces you to fight the disease, you don’t have the right to let yourself go.
“We live in a family of 4: my son, my husband, my sclerosis and me”
Emilie (40 years old), mother of Damien, 10 years old
When, at the age of 27, I told my neurologist of my desire for pregnancy, I had been living with multiple sclerosis for only two years and it had not stabilized at all: at each MRI control, we saw new lesions. My neurologist then suggested that I take a more aggressive treatment for a year in order to stabilize the MS before starting a pregnancy. That’s what we did. I then stopped the treatment and then, a few months later, the pill. I became pregnant in June 2009 and after 9 months of a fantastic pregnancy, I made the choice to give birth without an epidural. My son, Damien, was born in March 2010 and since then we have been living in a family of four: my son, my husband, my sclerosis and me! I ended up accepting the disease and it doesn’t prevent me from doing a lot of things. With my son, we go on trips, we make music, we visit museums and, when he took up BMX, I even decided to get into it too!
