Delivery of the baby may be more difficult if you have MS. While labor itself is not affected, MS can affect the muscles and nerves needed for pushing. For this reason, you may need Cesarean delivery, or delivery with the help of forceps or vacuum.
MS doesn't appear to increase the risk of problems that can occur during any pregnancy. The risk of having pregnancy-induced hypertension, also called toxemia or preeclampsia, or early delivery (premature birth) does not increase with MS.
Although new and more effective treatment options are available, most MS patients deteriorate over time. Researchers believe that the temporary dampening of the immune response could explain why women with MS actually get better when pregnant.
Generally, women with MS can accept most types of pain relief during labour, such as pethidine, entonox (gas and air) and epidural anaesthesia.
Breastfeeding and MS
Breastfeeding has many benefits for parents and babies. For parents with MS, breastfeeding exclusively for 6 months may help to decrease relapses, but the science is not clear on this yet.
It's usually diagnosed during childbearing years, between the ages of 20 and 40. But it can happen at any age. The good news is that if you have MS and get the right medical care, chances are you can have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.
Several studies have shown that mothers with MS are just as likely to have healthy pregnancies and healthy babies as those without.
For women with MS taking potentially teratogenic medications, highly effective methods that are long-acting, such as IUDs and implants, might be the best option to avoid unintended pregnancy.
It is generally recommended that all DMTs be stopped prior to conception. Some studies have demonstrated that interferon-beta and glatiramer acetate are safe to be taken up until conception and during pregnancy (Vukusic and Marignier, 2015).
In general, MS does not impact fertility. After assisted reproductive technology (ART) cycles, some small historic studies suggested elevated relapse risk but, this has not shown to be the case in larger modern studies where women are more actively managed with DMTs (Bove et al., 2020) and (Graham et al., 2023).
MS is not directly inherited from parent to child. There's no single gene that causes it. Over 200 genes might affect your chances of getting MS. But genes are only part of the story.
The researchers found that over the past 25 years, life expectancy for people with MS has increased. However, they also found that the median age of survival of people with MS was 76 years, versus 83 years for the matched population.
Women can be reassured that MS is considered not to have an impact on the woman's ability to conceive and carry a fetus to term, as well as MS diagnosis does not increase the rates of premature or stillbirth, birth defects, cesarean delivery or spontaneous abortions [10].
The disabling effects of the disease may make it physically hard to carry a pregnancy. Muscle weakness and coordination problems may increase the likelihood for falls. Fatigue may worsen. Wheelchair dependence may increase the risk for urinary tract infections.
The recent prevalence study shows that MS is 3 times more common in those assigned female at birth than male. This suggests that hormones may also play a significant role in determining susceptibility to MS.
For women with more active MS, the medication that's most likely to be safe, or potentially used during pregnancy, is Tysabri. There's increasing evidence around this but the risks and benefits need to be carefully weighed up for each person in discussion with their neurologist.
MS does not increase the risk of miscarriage or birth defects. Some women have fewer MS symptoms during pregnancy, then a temporary relapse after delivery. But pregnancy, delivering a baby, and early motherhood do not increase the risk of being disabled by MS over time.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and MS
It's not for everyone, and so far there's not been much research into benefits of HRT for women with MS. One small study from 1992 found that 75% of women taking HRT felt it improved their symptoms when they were asked about it in a questionnaire.
Another study involving people in the military similarly found that higher blood levels of vitamin D seemed to protect people from developing MS. Studies in the laboratory and in people with MS indicate that vitamin D may also alter immune function in ways that have beneficial effects on the course of MS.
The youngest age of onset of MS in the medical literature is 2 years but the majority of children are diagnosed in their early teens. In 3 to 5 percent of cases, MS onset is before age 16; an onset before 10 years of age is extremely uncommon, with a reported incidence of 0.2 to 0.7 percent.
Some of the factors that have been suggested as possible causes of MS include: your genes – MS isn't directly inherited, but people who are related to someone with the condition are more likely to develop it; the chance of a sibling or child of someone with MS also developing it is estimated to be around 2 to 3 in 100.
Tiredness is one of the most common symptoms of a flare. You may also experience weakness or malaise (a general overall feeling of sickness). During a flare, fatigue may be caused by cytokines — substances produced by the immune system.