January 11, 2024 News by Lindsey Shapiro, PhD Depression in pregnancy linked to autoimmune disease, especially MS Women with a history of depression around the time they get pregnant are at increased risk of developing autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), according to recent research. Likewise, women who have an autoimmune disease are more likely to get depressed during pregnancy and in the year after…
November 22, 2023 News by Lindsey Shapiro, PhD Smoking during pregnancy tied to raised MS risk in mothers, offspring Women who smoked during pregnancy, and their offspring, showed a significantly higher risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) in a recent Danish study. “Our observations add further to the evidence implicating smoking in the development of MS and suggest that intra-uterine exposure to tobacco smoke may increase MS risk,”…
March 20, 2023 News by Margarida Maia, PhD No rise in MS patients’ risk of relapse seen with fertility treatments Disease relapses are no more likely in women with multiple sclerosis (MS) after fertility treatment than they were before such treatment, a study found. Researchers also observed that almost half of the women receiving fertility treatment were on disease-modifying MS therapies, which may have helped to keep a…
March 8, 2023 News by Lindsey Shapiro, PhD Study may help explain protective effects of pregnancy in MS A new study of women with multiple sclerosis (MS) who had previously given birth may have identified one of the mechanisms behind the lasting protective effects of pregnancy seen in MS patients. Patients who’d had children were found to have a number of differences in methylation, a type of…
January 25, 2023 News by Patricia Inacio, PhD Fewer Women With MS Choosing to Stop DMT Use While Pregnant The use of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) by pregnant women with multiple sclerosis (MS) significantly increased over the last decade or so, and fewer of them are stopping treatment before giving birth, a single-center study in Italy reported. While most patients (95.1%) discontinued a DMT while pregnant between 2005…
October 27, 2022 News by Marta Figueiredo, PhD #ECTRIMS2022 ā Study Examines Ocrevus Use Before, During Pregnancy Treatment with Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) before or during pregnancy does not seem to increase the risk of major pregnancy or infant complications, with 79% of the pregnancies leading to live births, according to data from more than 2,000 women with multiple sclerosisĀ (MS). The results were shared at the 38th…
September 26, 2022 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Pregnancy Risks Not Likely to Rise With Early DMT Use, Study Finds The rates of pregnancy complications are not higher in women with multiple sclerosis (MS) who were usingĀ disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) in the earliest stages of pregnancy, a study reported. The study, “Pregnancy outcomes after early fetal exposure to injectable first-line treatments, dimethyl fumarate or natalizumab in…
August 23, 2022 News by Marta Figueiredo, PhD For Pregnant MS Patients, No Added Risk of Infant Growth Deficits: Study Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) are not at a higher risk of their babies having growth deficits during pregnancy or after birth than individuals without the disease, a study suggests. Yet, the data showed women with MS are significantly more likely to deliver their babies by cesarean section (C-section)…
August 22, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: PBA, Pregnancy, Interferon-beta, Pediatric MS Test Early Detection of Pseudobulbar Affect May Help Ease MS Symptom I often see posts on social media from people with MS asking if crying for no reason is an MS symptom, because it happens to them. I didn’t know that apparently, it is. Laughing, too. This report says…
August 19, 2022 News by Lindsey Shapiro, PhD Prior Pregnancy, But Not the Pill, May Protect Against MS The risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) is lower in women with a history of pregnancy and is not affected by the use of oral contraceptives, according to a recent meta-analysis of four published studies. However, the four studies, conducted in the U.S. and Iran, showed considerable variability in…
May 16, 2022 News by Marta Figueiredo, PhD Copaxone Appears Safe for Infants Whose Mothers Breastfeed: Study TakingĀ Copaxone (glatiramer acetate), an approved therapy for relapsing forms ofĀ multiple sclerosisĀ (MS), while breastfeeding does not appear to be harmful to infants during their first 18 months, according to a real-life study in Germany called COBRA. āIn this study, we compared the development of 120 children in total, whose…
March 25, 2022 News by Lindsey Shapiro, PhD No Increased Risk Found From Ocrevus Exposure in Pregnancy Exposure to Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) just before conception or during the first three months of pregnancy does not seem to increase the risk of adverse outcomes for women with multiple sclerosis (MS) or their babies, according to a small Australian study. All of the patients stopped taking Ocrevus upon…
March 10, 2022 News by Lindsey Shapiro, PhD Parents’ Aubagio Exposure Not Linked to Greater Pregnancy Risks Maternal or paternal exposure prior to conception to the multiple sclerosis (MS) therapy Aubagio (teriflunomide) does not seem to increase the risk of adverse pregnancy events, including miscarriage, preterm birth, small newborn size, or malformations, according to the results of a recent Danish study. About…
February 22, 2022 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Review Highlights Substantial Knowledge Gaps in Women’s Health in MS There has been a marked increase in the amount of research done regarding women’s health in multiple sclerosis (MS) over the last decade or two, but there remain substantial gaps in scientific knowledge, especially for topics outside of pregnancy, according to a scoping review. “Future studies are needed that…
February 8, 2022 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Patients Who Stop Tysabri for Pregnancy at Higher Risk for Relapse The majority of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who stop taking Tysabri (natalizumab) before or when they become pregnant experience a disease relapse during pregnancy or shortly thereafter, according to a study out of Germany. In more than one out of every 10 cases, relapses were so severe that…
January 26, 2022 News by Lindsey Shapiro, PhD After Pregnancy, Women Show More Brain Lesions, Volume Loss Women with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) have more brain lesions and accelerated brain volume loss (BVL) after pregnancy compared with pre-pregnancy measurements, recent data showed. Brain lesions in the early postpartum period ā the first months following childbirth āĀ were associated with a higher risk of worsened disability and relapse…
December 17, 2021 News by Patricia Inacio, PhD Pregnancy Poses Challenges to MS Management, Review Study Shows Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) who receive high-efficacy disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) before conception have a greater risk of relapses and disability progression during pregnancy than those given moderate-efficacy or no DMTs, according to a systematic review of studies. Exclusive breastfeeding for at least two to four months, however,…
November 24, 2021 Columns by Beth Ullah MS and Fertility: Conflicts of the Heart and Mind āRock bottom is the end of what wasnāt true enough. Begin again and build something Truer.” ā Glennon Doyle The first of our four pregnancy losses were our twin daughters in 2013, which happened nearly halfway through my pregnancy. Three years later, the first symptoms appeared that would eventually would…
November 15, 2021 News by Somi Igbene, PhD Longer Breastfeeding May Damage Brain By Delaying DMT Use Having at least one pregnancy may lower disability scores in women with multiple sclerosis (MS), but breastfeeding for longer than six months may worsen damage to the brain, an observational study in patients has found. Findings support the need for careful pregnancy planning, counseling, and treatment management to ensure…
September 23, 2021 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Light-sensing Protein Could Explain Seasonal Changes in MS Risk The presence of a light-sensing protein in the brain during the early stages of fetal development may help to explain why certain neurological diseases, like multiple sclerosis (MS), are more common among people born at specific times of the year, a study found. The researchers, who noted that people…
June 17, 2021 News by Somi Igbene, PhD MS Does Not Raise Woman’s Risk of Child With Brain Disorder, Study Suggests Children born to women with multiple sclerosis (MS) are not at a higher risk of brain disorders than are children whose mothers don’t have this disease, an observational study reported. However, children born to women with a family with a history of other autoimmune conditions and brain disorders, or…
March 5, 2021 News by Marisa Wexler, MS #ACTRIMS2021 ā Taking Medication During Pregnancy Reduces Healthcare Costs Editorās note: TheĀ Multiple Sclerosis News Today news team is providing in-depth and unparalleled coverage of the virtual ACTRIMS Forum 2021, Feb. 25ā27. GoĀ hereĀ to see the latest stories from the conference. Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) who continue taking disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) throughout pregnancy accrue lower non-maternity healthcare…
February 16, 2021 News by Marta Figueiredo, PhD Rituximab Before or During Pregnancy Not Linked to Major Complications Treatment with rituximabĀ before or during pregnancy was not associated with major pregnancy or infant complications, according to a case series of 19 women with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune diseases. These findings add to the limited available evidence on the use of rituximab by expectant mothers either…
February 15, 2021 News by Aisha I Abdullah PhD TH17-suppressing Pregnancy Proteins May Be MS Therapeutic Target Proteins called PSGs suppress the pro-inflammatory activity of immune Th17 cells during pregnancy, potentially playing a protective role against complications and miscarriage, a study finds.Ā The impaired regulation of Th17 is associated with pregnancy complications, like preeclampsia and preterm delivery ā and also with the development…
December 31, 2020 News by Diana Campelo Delgado MS Risk May Be Higher for Children of Diabetic Mothers, Study Suggests Children of diabetic mothers may be at more risk of developing multiple sclerosisĀ (MS), a Danish national study suggests. The study, āMaternal diabetes and risk of multiple sclerosis in the offspring: A Danish nationwide register-based cohort study,ā was published in theĀ Multiple Sclerosis Journal. Previous studies have suggested a…
November 30, 2020 News by Patricia Inacio, PhD Fewer Pregnancies, Premature Menopause Linked to Early Onset of Progressive MS Women who have never given birth are more likely to develop early onset of progressive multiple sclerosis, according to a new study, which also found that a woman’s number of pregnancies showed a positive effect in delaying the disease. In addition, entering menopause earlier, before the age of 46,…
September 28, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Global MS Numbers, Pregnancy and MS, ANK-700 MS Prevalence at Over 2.8 Million Worldwide, Update to Atlas Reports With almost 3 million of us around the world, we’re not really rare, but we’re rare enough that our MS is still a puzzle to many. People seem to know what muscular dystrophy is (probably because of the…
September 21, 2020 News by Marta Figueiredo, PhD Pregnancy Delays Likely MS Onset by About 3 Years, Large Study Finds After a pregnancy or childbirth, most women who went on to develop clinically isolated syndrome (CIS)Ā did so about three years later than those who were never pregnant, a large and multicenter study reported. Multiple pregnancies or births, however, were not seen to further affect CIS onset. More research is…
September 15, 2020 News by Joana Carvalho, PhD #MSVirtual2020 – Relapses During Pregnancy More Likely on Higher Efficacy DMTs Women with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS)Ā using moderate- or high-efficacy disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) before conceiving are more likely to have a relapse during pregnancy than are those taking low-efficacy DMTs or no medicines at all, a registry-based study found. This greater relapse risk during pregnancy could be reduced with…
July 28, 2020 Columns by Jessie Ace Managing Expectations on Your Wedding Day Rose petal confetti ā made from the roses my dad had given me a few days before ā rained down as the people I cared about most in the world cheered.Ā “Congratulations!” came from all around as family and friends pulled me in for a hug. My legs,…