Want To Start A Family - What Should I Be Aware Of With Celiac?

[OleMissLass]

My fiance' and I would like to try to start a family once we're married in December. I am 34 and he is 32 so we don't want to wait much longer. I have celiac and have been on the gluten-free diet pretty faithfully for over a year. I also have hypothyroidism, migraines, and dermatitis which I'm fairly certain are all related to my gluten allergy.

I've read (and seen on this forum) that celiac can cause infertility, miscarriage, and other problems with pregnancy. My OBGYN doesn't seem very concerned, but she also doesn't seem to know much about celiac. What should I be aware of as we try to get pregnant? Should I try to find an OBGYN who specializes in mothers with celiac? Is there even such a thing? Also, is there anything I can do, besides sticking to the diet, to make pregnancy with celiac safer and easier?

I'd really appreciate any advice from people who have dealt with this issue.

Tara

[GlutenFreeManna]

Be sure your vitamin levels are back to normal and start taking a good gluten-free pre-natal vitamin BEFORE you try to conceive (start now if possible). Also if you have not been retested to see if your antibodies have gone down you might want to ask to have that done to make sure you are complying well with the gluten-free diet (tests will be negative if you are gluten-free). Beyond that, I reccommend the book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" by Toni Weschler. She teaches you how to chart your cycle and know when your most fertile times are.

[violentlyserene]

  On 8/30/2011 at 9:42 PM, OleMissLass said:

My fiance' and I would like to try to start a family once we're married in December. I am 34 and he is 32 so we don't want to wait much longer. I have celiac and have been on the gluten-free diet pretty faithfully for over a year. I also have hypothyroidism, migraines, and dermatitis which I'm fairly certain are all related to my gluten allergy.

I've read (and seen on this forum) that celiac can cause infertility, miscarriage, and other problems with pregnancy. My OBGYN doesn't seem very concerned, but she also doesn't seem to know much about celiac. What should I be aware of as we try to get pregnant? Should I try to find an OBGYN who specializes in mothers with celiac? Is there even such a thing? Also, is there anything I can do, besides sticking to the diet, to make pregnancy with celiac safer and easier?

I'd really appreciate any advice from people who have dealt with this issue.

Tara

I asked both of my doctors about this since we'd started trying before I was diagnosed and both agree there's nothing to be concerned about other than the usual need for prenatals, etc. If you have no known fertility problems, just carry on as normal. I use Rainbow Lite Prenatal minitabs since they are the most complete prenatal vitamins I could find (and are gluten-free).

[lovegrov]

Ditto what others said. If you've been gluten-free for a year and vitamin levels are normal, you should have nothing to be aware of other than the usual things non-celiacs watch for.

richard