If you are pregnant women who ever underwent fertility treatment (in vitro fertilization (IVF)), you should fix meet your doctor. A new study shows that women who underwent fertility related treatment are at five times higher risk of pregnancy-related heart failure than those who conceive naturally.
This condition called peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM). It is life-threatening to the mother and baby and this condition found in 1 in 1000 pregnant women worldwide.
PPCM is sudden enlargement of heart in late or after pregnancy and its signs include swollen legs, shortness of breath and waking up to urinate in late night.
The findings come from studying the health of 111 patients with PPCM and was presented on Saturday at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology.
Hilfiker-Kleiner said that those women who had lost their pregnancies can also show the symptoms of PPCM.
Although it is difficult to distinguish between normal pregnancy discomfort and PPCM Dr. Tobias Pfeffer.
Researchers also said that women who have developed the symptoms of cardiac stress should know that the next cycle can increase their risk of becoming severely ill.
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“In all women who have conceived artificially, gynecologists and fertility doctors should advise cardiac checks including echocardiography after delivery, or shortly before, to rule out PPCM,” said study senior author Dr. Denise Hilfiker-Kleiner.
She noted that women may go under multiple rounds of assisted reproductive technology (ART) if they don’t get pregnant or lost their babies.
Women who undergo fertility treatment are generally older and more likely to deliver by cesarean section so they have tow risk factors of PPCM.
Fertility treatments induce multiple pregnancies which also raise the risk of PPCM.
The researcher said that they are investigating whether genetic alterations may predispose women to PPCM.
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