Time To Heal

[ylimaf]

I came down with symptoms 2 months before I got pregnant with triplets. I learned what the symptoms were caused by when I found out I was pregnant. All three babies have died. How long will it take for the intestins to heal enough to get pregnant again. I may be pregnant now (1 month after misscarriage)

[Guhlia]

It really depends on how much damage was done to your body pre-diagnosis. It could take a few days to heal or it could take a few years or there could be too much damage to ever heal completely. Definitely remain 100% gluten free and hopefully this pregnancy will go full-term with no problems. BTW, I'm very sorry to hear of your losses. I will keep you in my thoughts. Let us know if you find out whether or not you're pregnant. Good luck.

[CarlaB]

Welcome to the board.

I am so sorry for your loss. Just be sure you're 100% gluten-free and your intestines will continue to heal. You don't say whether losing the babies was actually due to the celiac ... I was undiagnosed when I was pregnant and had very difficult pregnancies. I was so sick all I'd eat was bread ... I just kept getting sicker. I also got very dehydrated. Keep drinking enough fluids, you will need electrolytes, too, if you have diarrhea. Make sure the food you eat is all nutritious since lots of it doesn't get absorbed anyway.

I think you should ask your doctor about the timing of getting pregnant again. I would imagine your hormones could be messed up from the malabsorption, so I'd be sure you get your progesterone levels checked when you do get pregnant as a lot of women, not necessarily celiac, have trouble carrying a baby because of low progesterone levels. All it takes is supplementation until the placenta can take over progesterone production.

This is definately something to talk to your doctor about .... but opinions from the board are good to have so you can learn from the experience of others since doctor's experience with celiac is limited.

[Alexandra]

I'm so sorry about your losses.

I think your doctor can probably give you the best advice about how long to wait, but given that you may be pregnant now, you should probably see if you can talk to a nutritionist about what the safest way to eat for this (possible) pregnancy is, given that your intestines are presumably still damaged. It may be possible (and necessary) to take supplements in order to compensate for the damage -- one obvious (possible) supplement is folic acid, which is available in gluten-free formulas and is important to fetal neural development.

You might want to ask your doctor about getting tested for thyroid problems, also. These are more common in people with celiac disease than in the general population and can cause problems in pregnancy -- but are treatable as long as they are detected and monitored (hopefully your OB will know to do this, but it cannot hurt to double-check).

Good luck to you.

-- Alexandra