Women with multiple sclerosis are many times thinking about having children.
They are worried about whether their illness will get worse, they can get pregnant on their medications and whether their children will get multiple sclerosis.
Make sure to talk to your MS physician because some of the most important questions involve your particular case, including how active it is, timing of pregnancy and the particular medication you are on to control your illness.
Your children will not develop multiple sclerosis because you have it. There is only slightly increased risk, partly due to shared genes and environment.
We had limited data concerning the newer infusion therapies for multiple sclerosis like Ocrevus or Kesimpta which has same mechanism of action.
Recently a study in Canada looked at 100 pregnancies in women with MS on Ocrevus in their data base between 2008-2021.
This medication does not appear to cross the placenta until end of second/beginning of third trimester.
Global registry of Ocrevus exposure as of March 2021, includes 1223 pregnancies.
No increase risk of adverse pregnancy outcome or fetal abnormality has been found.
In the Canadian cohort there were 47 live births and 13 spontaneous abortions.
No increased risk of maternal problems, or congenital anomalies were found consistent with global pregnancy safety data
This is all good news for young women with multiple sclerosis who want to have children.
They can safely stay on their medication, control their disease process and have healthy children.
Nancy Nealon, MD