Caryn I need your idea-or anyone else re allergies

[jean]

Oh thank goodness. Thank you Catherine. So it is still ok that I take those probiotics? I thought maybe I should just try not using them now that I'm with my husband and haven't ever tried being with him w/o taking them...but I have this super fear that the BV will come back, and it was sooo hard to get rid of it in the first place (and expensive!) And the other problem is that right now we're using condoms, and when we'll be TTC again in a couple of months will be the 1st time I'll be exposed to sperm again...and I've heard that BV infections can cause miscarriage etc..
So I just wasn't sure what I should do. I definitely didn't want to put anything in jeopardy either by taking or not taking the suppositories. (What I'm using is called Candaclear)

[catherine]

Jean, BV is currently understood to represent an altered microflora of the genital tract. Essentially, the balance of all the bacteria and fungi that live there (and there are MANY) is thrown out of whack and there is an overgrowth of some species, normally squeezed out by the lactobacilli there. Any number of things may contribute to this, hormones, pH, available nutrients and intermediates etc. The human vaginal microbiome project (yes, there really is one) indicates that this can fluctuate on a near daily basis (they know this because there are girls participating in the project providing daily swabs for analysis... the mind boggles!!). Developing BV is not at all a failure or deficiency of your immune system, nor is it evidence of allergy or allergic response. The probiotics that you are taking simply throw the balance back, they aren't doing anything damaging.

[jean]

I guess my fear is that I could possibly be allergic to sperm... (if TMI, sorry!) I'm not diagnosed as anything...but with my partner before my current husband, after sex every time I would end up with BV. I found that putting in a probiotic afterward would stop the infection. (After getting the infection chronically for a year...it was really hard to finally get rid of it). I've been scared to go w/o the suppository ever since..so with my husband we've never been together w/o me taking that probiotic. (I asked my dr. about it, and he said it was ok to take it even when pg last yr)...but deep in my mind I wonder if the whole situation has anything to do with the HELLP. I'm scared to have intercourse w/o the suppository. And yet I don't want it to cause problems either.
I never had any weird reactions to intercourse before the previous partner. But I was scared I was just developing something..I don't know..any thoughts?

[glimmer]

I agree with what has been said. I also thought in the beginning that there might be some similarities but there are not.
E.g. allergies have something to do with the histamin cycle and hence
anti-histamins, which occupy the docking stations of the natural histamin, can be taken to weaken the allergic reaction.
To my knowledge histamin plays no role in pre-eclampsia.
The only similarity I can think of is that both have to do something with proteins that are foreign to the body (the babies or that of the allergen) and how our body reacts to their presence. But everything after that seems to be different.

[caryn]

Jean, that's actually right where the analogy with allergies breaks down.

The immune system is definitely involved in preeclampsia. But the part that is related to the shallow implantation doesn't seem to do anything *but* implantation of the placenta. It only solves that problem. All mammals have to tolerate placentas, and the cells that form them are very good indeed at making our bodies tolerate them. But when implantation is shallow, creating that sort of tolerance is trickier, and breaks down at some point during the pregnancy. When it fails, PE symptoms hit.

This is all called "reproductive immunology" and is insanely difficult to study. I don't really understand it.

But an awful lot of women with bad allergies get pregnant and have no issues carrying the pregnancies to term. So it cannot be the same problem.

[jean]

Thank you Alanna. I appreciate the input!

[alviarin]

I don't know if there is any link between allergies and pre-e. (Though some auto-immune disorders are a risk factor for pre-e).

Sometimes subsequent pregnancies are better (maybe due to the placenta taking advantage of prior spiral artery remodeling). Sometimes they are worse (maybe due to an underlying disorder becoming worse with time.) And of course each pregnancy is unique genetically.

According to my allergist I'm allergic to "the world" and in both my pregnancies I developed pre-e around the same time. It didn't become as severe with my second, though we did induce a week earlier.

Most of my family has allergies & asthma, but I'm the only one to also develop pre-e. My husband was a pre-e baby, and so was my father, so genetics may play a role for us.

[jean]

Since pre-e/HELLP is an immune response to the foreign placenta, is it possible that it functions like allergies do? When I have an allergic reaction to something, unfortunately, it seems like each subsequent exposure makes the allergic reaction worse. So would a subsequent pregnancy be similar? (Or is that just something that can't be predicted?) Do you know if anyone has done any research to see if people who react worse each time when exposed to an allergen do worse in subsequent pregnancies as well?