Lupus Anticoagulant

[lsp]

My husband and I lost our first daughter at 31wks. Emily was stillborn with no warning and weeks without an explanation. She was over 3 lbs when she was born. About 6 weeks later my OB/GYN called me in for some bloodwork and we found I have Lupus Anticoagulant. I immediately saw a high risk OB/GYN and started an aspirin therapy. When I got pregnant again (about 9 months later) I started Lovenox at about 8 weeks. I now have two beautiful children. I was told the aspirin/blood thinner therapy was optional but I wasn't willing to risk it. The shots quickly worked into my routine and only posed a problem closer to delivery when I had to switch from the Lovenox (which is nonreversable to Herperin). We're currently debating another child so I've started taking baby aspirin again "just in case".

[ria_rose4]

Last year around this time I was having extreme pain in my groin area. I thought maybe I had just pulled a muscle. As the pain got to the point where I couldn't even walk, my mom finally dragged me to the doctor. After a CT scan they found a large blood clot in my left iliac vein. To make a long story short, I was admitted to the hospital right away and spent the next month there. My entire left leg clotted and after several attempts to thin out my blood, they decided I needed to have the lytic procedure to manually break up the clots. After four of these surgeries, the clot finally cleared. During all of this, they found out that I have lupus anticoagulant. Nothing like this runs in my family at all and it has been a huge shock. I am 28 years old and have been married for 7 years now with no children. I am starting to want to have children and learned that with this blood disorder it is very difficult to stay pregnant. I have been on Warfarin since leaving the hospital and will probably have to be on it for the rest of my life. The doctors say that if I do decide to get pregnant that I will have to give myself Lovenox injections. I had to do this a couple of times while I was in the hospital for my clot and they are not fun especially since they are given in the stomach which is a very odd place for a shot. I have always been afraid to have children and now I am terrified. It's nice to know that there are other people out there who are going through the same emotions. I just pray that someday I can have children without any complications.

Blessings to you all!

[bubwishes]

Hello... I?d like to tell you my story.
My DH and I have been trying to have a baby for 3 1/2 years now with no luck. 2 1/2 years ago we started the ivf journey with no success other than miscarriage after miscarriage after miscarriage (all prior to 7 weeks). Our FS just told us to pray and if it took 13 ivf's it would take 13 ivf's! One day I was speaking to a friend telling her what we'd been thru and she put me in contact with Dr Matthias in Sydney who is a reproductive immunologist. He ran heaps of test on me and discovered that I have antiphospholid antibodies and thyroid antibodies (I have hashimotos), and told me that the next ivf I would have to be on Prednisolone and clexane and most probably cardiprin. I?ve never battered an eye lid at these drugs as if that?s whats going to make me become a mum.... Well, I am now 9 weeks pregnant with twins and I?m ecstatic!!! We have never got this far and the babies are doing well. I feel like a walking chemist as the fertility clinic has me on a pregnancy maintenance program consisting of prog pessaries, pregnal and cardiprin and doctor Matthias has me on prednisolone and clexane ... oh and I?m on my thyroxine!!! I know we won?t be out of the woods until we're holding these babies. I have also been bleeding (bright red) a lot which freaks me out!!! They tell me I have 2 very little clots that are far away from our babies sacs and that the clexane is most probably encouraging the bleed. I?m with a high risk ob, and all my other specialists (incl him) don?t seem to think it?s a worry at all. They tell me that our little babies are completely unaware to whats happening around them....I get a scan and checked every 2 weeks which is very reassuring. don't get me wrong...we are still very nervous and scared and I?m sure the dr's wouldn't have but us on the drugs if they were going to harm me or our babies, but we do have the best of the best looking after us so the rest is with the big man above. I can't seem to take the smile off my face though. Should something happen to this pregnancy I believe it will just take us one step closer to being the mum and dad.

[Stacy]

My husband and I lost our first daughter at 31wks. Emily was stillborn with no warning and weeks without an explanation. She was over 3 lbs when she was born. About 6 weeks later my OB/GYN called me in for some bloodwork and we found I have Lupus Anticoagulant. I immediately saw a high risk OB/GYN and started an aspirin therapy. When I got pregnant again (about 9 months later) I started Lovenox at about 8 weeks. I now have two beautiful children. I was told the aspirin/blood thinner therapy was optional but I wasn't willing to risk it. The shots quickly worked into my routine and only posed a problem closer to delivery when I had to switch from the Lovenox (which is nonreversable to Herperin). We're currently debating another child so I've started taking baby aspirin again "just in case".

[Stacy]

Hello,

As I was reading your about your sitation, I noticed it is similar to mine. I have had a total of 3 miscarriages. I am 32 yrs. old. I have no children yet. My first misscarriage was in April 2008. It was a Blited Ovuam. I found out at 9 1/2 weeks. Had to have a D& C. Then got pregnant again and Sept. 19th, 2008 went for ultrasound. I was about 9 1/2 weeks and the baby had stopped growing. Found out baby had trisomy 18. Had another D & C and they took a lot of blood to test. Found out I have MTHFR -Homozygous and Lupus Anitcoagulant was also detected at this time. I was told to take a baby asprin a day once pregnant again. Found out I was pregnant again on Jan. 15th, 2009 and starting taking the baby asprin a day. Started bleeding on Jan. 21st, 2009. My OBGYN recommended I see high risk dr. So, i did and he said my last pregnancy was called a chemical pregnancy. He recommended my husband and I get tested for a detached chromosome. We both tested and came back normal. He also recommended I get tested again for the Lupus Anitcoagulant. So I did and it came back NOT DETECTED this time. This was in March 2009. I am now 4 weeks pregant and my OBGYN and high risk doctor says I do NOT need to take the lovenox shots b/c my 2nd Lupus Anitcoagulant test came back NOT DETECTED. I only need to take a baby asprin and a day. But my hematologist says to take shots 1.5 of Lovenox daily in the stomach. I don't know who to listen to. Any advice???