Getting pregnant on addisons

[shellyanm]

Please share with me your stories about getting pregnant and having babies with addisons. I am worried because am 36 an now have addions and no baby yet. everyone is telling me to wait cause me body is still so weak. but i am worried now my ovaries wont work if i wait too long.

[Idaho Dusty]

Shelly,

I was undiagnosed with Addison's when I had my son.  I have no experience with getting pregnant but I do have some questions for you:

*How much HC are you taking and at what times of day?
*Do you take any other meds/supplements?
*Do you have any other diseases?
*Is your Addison's primary (adrenals) or secondary (pituitary)?  If secondary, have you had an MRI to detect an adenoma?  Full pituitary panel?  IGF-1, prolactin, LH, FSH, TSH?
*Have you had your thyroid tested??

:) Dusty

[anne_elliott]

Shelly, I'm new here and no expert, but I was diagnosed with Addison's 3 years ago, and I had one baby since and am now pregnant again. I also have Hashimoto's.

It hasn't been hard to get pregnant for me, but it's hard to make it through the pregnancy. About halfway through, I tend to get all kinds of crazy symptoms, and it's really hard for the doctors to decide how much or how little of Cortef, Florinef, and Synthroid to put me on. I think I'm a guinea pig!

My last baby was born 5 weeks early, but full size and healthy lungs... so Cortef must cross the placenta (even though they say it doesn't). I'm due in 9 more weeks with this baby, so we'll see what happens.

I get really big, I swell easily, I'm very tired, my blood pressure goes up and down. However, I don't have pre-eclampsia.

The biggest argument among doctors is whether to increase your cortef or not, or whether to decrease your florinef or not. I think it would be so much better if they treated more by symptoms than by lab values, especially since pregnancy hasn't been studied much.

Breastfeeding is easy (in that I have plenty of milk) but HARD (in that it has made me go into crisis before). So I want to experiment with MORE cortef this time, but I haven't gotten my doctor to agree to that yet.

I'm not being very encouraging, but I do know that children are a blessing and while it's especially tough to be pregnant with Addison's, it's very worth it, too!

~Anne

[ShannonD]

Anne,

I think it is unlikely that florinef is going to make you get pre-eclampsia unless they way over dose you, and they should know with in a few days of upping the dose if it is upping BP too much.....and you'd probably feel it.    

Recently I was swelling and I upped my florinef from 0.05mg in am to o.o5 in am and 0.025 at 2pm.  I feel much better and the swelling is acutally better.

When I was getting diagnosed with addison's my BP was actually high.....I think that between the low thyroid, low adrenals, and high pressure in my brain......my sympathetic nervous system was kicking in BIG TIME......I would have these mini-crisis where I felt like I was going to faint.....and got severe pressure in my head.....and my BP was high....Anyway, the reason I mention this is that taking florinef actually LOWERED my blood pressure.  It is now 100/60.

Certainly if you are feeling nausea or muscle weakness more cortisol might help.  

I agree with you 100% they should go on symptoms not lab numbers,......because they do not know. As long as blood pressure is good and you feel good.

BTW, how did breast feeding go for you with your last baby?? I got addison's in the months after I delivered my baby.  I was secreting salt in my saliva, and then I started to secrete salt on my skin.....finally when I had my first crisis, I came to the realization that I was secreting it in my breast milk (which is not so good for baby.....it was giving her these diaper rashes that were welted and hot, not yeast).  Anyhow, that was when she was 6 months and I stopped breast feeding.  When I read about the effect of aldosterone(florinef), it helps your body conserve salt in your urine, sweat, saliva.....so that you do not just secrete all your salt that your body needs.  Well, if I had to say......I think that it helps you not secrete too much salt in breast milk as well.  So anyhow, I was wondering if you were able to breast feed last baby, and if so how much florinef you were taking?

Good luck to you.
Shannon