From what little I´ve read on this, and there isn´t loads, pregnancy, when the patient has masto, does not become worse due to the pregnancy. There can be some issues during the pregnancy itself, and with birth, be it c-section or natural childbirth, these are events which do require pre-medication for it can trigger reactions, however, I don´t believe that it causes any progression of the disease, at least not in SM. What it does to the autoimmune form of MCAS is anyone´s guess. Until the researchers decide the autoimmune form of MCAS worth their study, these patients and their doctors remain in the dark.
Now for those patients who don´t know that they have masto, pregnancy has been recognized as a physically "traumatic" enough event to bring it out of hiding, just as surgery or contrast use. It´s not emotional trauma I´m talking about but the physical trauma that these events cause to the system - the medications or stress to the system. But this is something that´s already known about masto be it SM or the MCAS forms.
I know that some women have said that they are concerned about going through a 2nd pregnancy following their masto coming to the forefront, but although I did not have any obvious reactions, now looking back to my last pregnancy, I can indeed see that the masto was there, even though this awas 10 years prior to the even which brought it out of hiding. I went through episodes of hypotension and almost went into anaphylaxis due to the heat while pregnant. Yet I went through the c-section without any issues and the disease remained quiet for another 10 years.
Yet, regardless of this, even if I were living with this stage of my disease during my pregnancies, I have no doubts that I would not change a single thing!!! Any disease is going to rob us of what we consider our normal lives independent of what disease it is. They ALL encroach upon us one way or another - it´s not normal to be chronically ill! Yet unless it is such a disease as to endanger my life, why should I allow it to rob me of my motherhood? Yes, masto complicates EVERYTHING we do and makes it harder to deal with just the simple living of life, but that still doesn´t mean that we stop living!!! We only have to PLAN it all more carefully!!
So, there is no way that I would change having had my 3 tremendous children!! They ENRICH my life and are a real blessing to have in spite of the fact that I can´t always keep up with them, and they are even a source for some of my triggering
at times. I still would not change a thing!!!
I hope this helps with some of the concerns!
Lisa