Pregnancy post donation

[dcourtney]

Hi all,

I donated my left kidney to my brother May 26, 2015, on October 15, 2015, I found out I was pregnant with my third child. As thrilled as I was, I was also concerned with the lack of time that I had allowed my body to recover from the donation. It wasn't a planned pregnancy, but as soon as I found out I was a match for my brother and the surgery was scheduled and then re-scheduled (due to my brother's failing health) I was told that getting an IUD before the surgery may further postpone the surgery date and so I opted to not go that route. I stopped BF my 2 year old 2 weeks before the surgery, and so my hormones were a bit out of sync and coming out of surgery, my adrenals had dropped significantly in function (although this is a test I had chose to have performed on my own and the transplant team denies any connection to the adrenal function drop and my donation..). All and all I recovered quickly and felt great, slower moving but back to work in 6 weeks and out white water rafting 2 weeks post surgery.

I can't find much information or data on pregnancy post donation and am a bit taken a back by the lack of follow up in monitoring those that donate.

Does any one have any pregnancy post donation stories? I am meeting with a local nephrologist in a few weeks, just to check in. I am now 18 weeks pregnant, 40 years old and all seems to be going well, although I have not checked the adrenal function since shortly after the surgery.

Thanks

[Fr Pat]

     You can read a lot of successful "pregnancy after donation" stories at the FaceBook page of Living Donors on Line. But a study in Europe comparing women who donated a kidney with women of similar age and health who did not donate found a higher rate of pre-eclampsia among the donors.
    Fr. Pat

[donor99]

Most programs ask that you wait 6 months for you kidney to compensate and your body to heal. I've had donors who got pregnant sooner and had no problems. Studis suggest an increased risk of pregnancy induced Hypertension or pre eclampsia..but no increased risk of low birth weight, prematurity, miscarriage etc..that's all on par with the general public. Most pregnancies  have no problem at all.