Pregnancy can be OK after organ transplantation

For women who have an organ transplant, the risks of pregnancy complications are no worse after they undergo the procedure than before, investigators report.

"These women are already rather sick and have a relatively poor pregnancy outcome," said Dr. Bengt Kallen.

Kallen from Tornblad Institute, University of Lund, Sweden, and associates compared pregnancy outcomes before and after renal transplantation. The birth rate both before and after transplantation was about half that expected in the general population, the team reports in the medical publication BJOG: an International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

For example, the odds of having a Miscarriage were twice as high as normal before transplantation and three times higher after transplantation - a nonsignificant difference from a statistical standpoint.

Preterm delivery and low birthweight were more common among women who had transplants than among the general population, the report indicates, but increased risks of these complications were also apparent before transplantation.

Similarly, the risk of infants dying during the first year was markedly increased among these women, the researchers found, but the risk was already increased before the transplantation.

The relatively poor outcomes are "not the result of the transplantation or drugs used, then, but of the woman's disease," Kallen said.

SOURCE: BJOG, July 2005.