Child Bearing with St Jude Valve

[as350z]

Can someone please supply me with some information regarding pregnancy with a St Jude Valve? I will also need some reputable doctors in the NY/NJ area.

Thanks :o

[bvdr]

Hi and welcome to this site. I just used the search function on the page with the words "pregnancy mechanical valve" and it pulled up quite a few threads that might be of interest to you.

I think you may find that the difficulties encountered are predominately related to the required coumadin than from the valve itself.

If you filled in the section about your personal profile or let us know more about yourself then it makes it much easier for members to respond meaningfully to your questions.

[as350z]

Thanks. I will update the profile. I'm actually doing this research for my wife. The doctor she is dealing with now will not let her have clearance for IVF.

[MichyB]

Hi. By doctor do you mean cardiologist or gynecologist? Although I have not needed a valve replacement as of yet, I do have a bicupsid. I've had some success with the cardiologists at Columbia University, and plan to be followed by a gynecologist there if/when I decided to get pregnant.

Try contacting the adult congenital heart clinic at Columbia and ask them for a referral to a gynecologist.

[Karlynn]

Welcome to our family. We are very blessed to have a wonderful Coumadin (warfarin) expert as one of our members. He has his own web site www.warfarinfo.com and on that site is an article addressing pregnancy. http://www.warfarinfo.com/pregnancy.htm that you will want to read.

How long has your wife had her mechanical valve? If it's well-seated and she is physically active, then pregnancy isn't out of the question. The biggest hurdle would be the warfarin issue. Make sure you read the portion in italics. Apparently this is new information that should be taken seriously and may sway your decision based on the risk involved.

[as350z]

My wife has had her valve since 1986 (since she was 12 years old ). We have met with high risk gynecolgists and they both stated that there is a risk but, it can be done. Both have dealt with women like her in the past. The problem is the IVF doctor wants a written sign off from the current heart doctor, and he isn't giving a clear picture. I believe there is some uncertainty that is causing everyone to be cautious due to the abundance of law suits these days. I just want another opinion by a highly skilled heart doctor, with the possibility of switching to his/hers care.

Thanks

[LUVMyBirman]

Wanted to welcome you.

It would be wonderful if you could keep updating this thread with your experience.

There have been members interested in pregancy with mechanical valves.

Wish your family well!

[Christian]

Here's a link that covers just about everything (scroll down for mechanical valve issues):

http://www.acc.org/clinical/guidelines/valvular/exe02.htm

I just went through somewhat of a similar process with my own wife. Our tale -- which had a happy ending -- is posted in the Significant Others forum.

[as350z]

The main problem right now is that she has a protein c deficientcy and her blood is more prone to cloting. The doctors have stated that they would treat her with heparin for the first 12 weeks then go back to cumidin, and for the final 12 weeks back to heparin.

We are going to get some more opinions before we can go any further. I'm thinking the best route for this issue would be a hematologist. What do you think?

[KathyH]

It's probably because the IVF is complicated. I have a friend that went thru it 4 times before getting pregnant, so that would complicate going off the coumadin and on to the heparin to say nothing about how the meds she will be on will affect her INR. Maybe Al has some information on that for you. Good Luck.
Kathy H