APLS - anyone else?

Hi, I've been diagnosed with APLS (antiphospholipid syndrome) which apparently causes recurrent M/Cs and possibly some probs with bubs growth (due to placental probs I think) during pregnancy. I'm on Clexane injections once per day as a precaution but am over 27 weeks now with my first pregnancy, and with no probs so far except my ob wants to induce at 38 weeks. Anybody else out there with this condition? Did you have a full term pg or were you induced? I'm not all that keen on being induced (or having a c/s) although obviously if its the best thing for the baby we'll do it....
No one is sure how bad my condition is is as they only found it soon after I fell pg (I had a DVT 18 months ago and one early M/C) with slightly raised cardiolipin tests but can't do any more tests etc. for now. I thought the worst part was over now we've got through first and second tris but ob today said the antibodies can affect bub in the last tri too - except he's not even sure how. Slightly worried now, any advice? ....

Hello MJB80,
I'm happy to find you, I just register today and I was also diagnosed with APLS after my 3rd miscarriage and it was identified as the cause of them. After the diagnosis was made I started low dose aspirin (81 mg) and I started Clexane (40 mg) at 8 week and it seems until now that it is working.
I am now 18 weeks pregnant! I don't have experience about the final stages of pregnancy but I have read in medical papers that in the most of the cases doctors stop pregnancy early (38 week or so). I haven't read anything about that the antibodies can affect directly the baby and my doctors haven't told me anything about that. My husband and I are living every day as the only one not thinking about the future because even though things are going fine, we do not have any guarantee.

Hi

I have tested positive for low levels of cardiolipin IGG and low levels of Protein S. Still waiting for my specialist (high risk obstetrician) to contact me. She put me on low dose aspirin a week ago. I am 14.2 days pregnant. Am not sure if I will need to go on heparin.

I know all of these tests are to identify whether a person suffers from a clotting factor problem. There are various different mutations. The majority of them are inherited/genetic. It is quite a complex area and there is a lot of reading out there on the subject.

Our blood clots when we cut ourselves to due to many specialised proteins and amnio acids that work with each other. In Hemophillia people lack a clotting factor and therefore bleed too much.

With phoso/cardiolipid antibodies it means bascially mean that the blood may clot more easily than it should do and it can be aproblem in pregnancy as the developing embryo needs to be able to establish a good blood supply in the early days for implantation and subsequently requires good blood supply through the placenta for continued growth.

My PAPP-A blood test was very low which indicates potential placental growth restriction. It also put me at high risk for downs syndrome (1 in 5). We are waiting as long as we can to do an amnio due to fibroids putting me a greater risk.

My sister has positive phosopholipid antibodies and despite 8 "A" grade blastocyst transfers was not able to become pregnant.

Since finding out about my blood tests I have been researching medical journals and the literature out there appears to indicate that early detection of these syndromes and appropriate medication (ie aspirin, corticosteroids and/or heparin) can greatly reduce the chance of problems.

So maybe I will go on heparin shortly. If I need to then that is ok. I am just going with the flow.

Tucs

Hi Miramar, I have APLS as well and was diagnosed after the loss of my baby girl in july 2007. Im pregnant again(yay!) 16.5 weeks and on clexane 40mg and asprin daily( I was on asprin daily then started clexane as soon as I had a pos preg test). Would love to talk and know how you are going, its such a relief to be able to talk to other with the same condition. Good luck with your pregnancy Mina

Hi mina74, for now my baby boy is already born, he is completely well. I had a hard pregnancy because I have had to rest the whole pregnancy. I started aspirin before I got pregnant and Clexane 40 mg daily after week 8 and continue Clexane 6 weeks more after c-section, my pregnancy was interrupted at week 37. Fortunately everything went fine and our baby is healthy. If I can help you in any way, just let me know.

Hi,
I too have just been diagnosed with APS, but unfortunatly we have not yet got to the pregnancy stage - we have just have failed IVF transfers - the APS is thought to be contributing to this. The specialist I went to has put me on Asprin (100mg) once a day, and Heprarin injections twice a day once we have our embryo transfer - which should be early next week.

It is nice to read that there are some women out that with APS who have gone on to have a succesful pregnancy, as I must admit at the moment it is all pretty daunting.

Tucs - I was wondering if your sister was on treatment for her APS while doing IVF?
Thanks
FG