Autoimmune diseases and pregnancy

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It is said that a person has an autoimmune disease when the cells of their immune system attack healthy cells of the body itself.

Below you have an index with all the points that we will discuss in this article.

Index

Autoimmune diseases and pregnancy

The specific cause that leads to the body attacking itself is not known. However, certain risk factors are known, such as genetic predisposition or certain environmental factors.

Pregnancy and immune system

Today there are more than 80 different autoimmune diseases, both local, that is to say that they affect a specific organism, as systemic, whose damage is caused in the organism in general.

The majority of systemic autoimmune diseases affect women and in many cases during fertile or reproductive age. For this reason, it is important to know the effect of the autoimmune disease on pregnancy and vice versa.

Problems during pregnancy

Some of the most common autoimmune diseases are multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), antiphospholipid syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and type I diabetes.

Many diseases of this type have a strong hormonal influence and since pregnancy involves a series of strong hormonal changes, it seems logical to think that the coexistence of both (illness and pregnancy) can lead to complications.

However, for some of these diseases, as for example in the case of multiple sclerosis, pregnancy is usually a relief. This does not always happen, because there are also cases in which pregnancy aggravates the disease.

The hormonal situation of pregnancy can cause the disease to remit or diminish the harmful consequences. However, this "protective effect" usually disappears after pregnancy, and may even reactivate the disease in a more intense and resulting in relapses and frequent outbreaks.

Immune system errors

To avoid this aggravation of the disease after childbirth, it is important to start the immunomodulatory treatment immediately. For this reason, breastfeeding is totally discouraged in these cases, since the medication taken could pass into breast milk and affect the baby.

On the other hand, as mentioned, it can also happen that pregnancy reactivates the disease due to female sex hormones. For example, in the case of SLE, there is an increase in the maternal risk of the appearance of nephropathy or its worsening. If the disease is controlled early in pregnancy, the probability of exacerbation is between 5 and 10%.

If, on the other hand, the pregnancy coincides with a period of activity of the LES, worsening occurs in more than half of the cases.

Also the disease can affect pregnancy increasing the incidence of:

  • Preeclampsia
  • Spontaneous abortion
  • Premature delivery
  • Increased antiphospholipid antibodies (may interfere with the development of the placenta)
  • Delay of intrauterine growth
  • Fetal death







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