Australian Women s Weekly
At the time, the newly qualified accountant hadn t given much thought to motherhood but while MS doesn t affect fertility, Adriana s doctors explained she would have to come off her medication during conception and pregnancy, which could lead to a relapse.
Full of trepidation, Adriana talked this over with her partner Mark. It broke my heart to think we might never have a baby, Adriana remembers. I told him it was my battle and he could leave me if he wanted.
But Mark, 37, who married Adriana in 2014, promised he d never leave her side.
With medication, the numbness and constant tingling stopped, but Adriana struggled with depression.
Monash University
A recent study by Monash University has highlighted the benefit for pregnant women with MS who continue with a disease modifying treatment during and after pregnancy.
Using data from the international MSBase registry, the findings published in Neurology, revealed that women with MS who continued to take natalizumab (Tysabri) through and after their pregnancy had a decrease in relapse rates by up to 89 per cent. In contrast, women with MS who stopped taking natalizumab (Tysabri) and another therapy, fingolimod (Gilenya), before conception had an increase in relapse rates.
Led by senior research fellow Dr Vilija Jokubaitis from the department of neuroscience at Monash Central Clinical School, the study is the first to show how well the disease can be controlled through and after pregnancy if women are appropriately managed on this therapy.