Trying to get pregnant

RLS occurs more frequently in certain populations, including people with end-stage renal disease, women during pregnancy, and people with iron deficiency. Also, RLS/WED in the elderly and children brings other challenges. Sharing your experiences may be extraordinarily helpful to others.
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s830632
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:44 am

Trying to get pregnant

Post by s830632 »

Hi Everyone!

I'm a RLS sufferer who has been successfully dealing with this disease using Miraplex for the last few years. I take a pretty low dose, just .125mg once a day, sometimes twice if I take it too early in the evening. Anyways, my husband and I have been trying to get pregnant, I got my first IUI this last Tuesday. On almost an afterthought, I decided to google Miraplex and pregnancy, and ever since then I've been a wreck. According to everything I read, you're not supposed to take it during pregnancy, and I'm honestly wondering now if there is a possibility that I may have been hurting my chances of getting pregnant simply because I was on this medicine (it has been shown to prevent implantation in rats). Anyways, I immediately tried to get in to see a sleep doctor, but I couldn't get an appointment until the 7th. So... I tried going to my family doctor today, who told me that I should just take benedryl, but that only makes it worse. I did tell her that, but she wouldn't even consider any of the other methods that I read about, such as ambien, oxycodone, or methodone (which I'm not really too interested in either). Anyways, she was completely useless, then I called my OB and talked to the nurse, she said it "should" be okay to take the meds until I find out whether or not I'm pregnant.

At this point I just have to wait until the 7th to talk to someone who is probably more familiar with this drug and hopefully how to help pregnant, or trying to get pregnant, women. I guess I'm just hoping to hear from someone on this site that was able to get pregnant while using MIraplex, and find out what you did and how it effected the fetus.

Thanks in advance to anyone who responds!

Polar Bear
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Location: United Kingdom

Re: Trying to get pregnant

Post by Polar Bear »

First of all........... a doc who tells you to use Benadryl for rls/wed obviously knows absolutely nothing about the condition.
Now... that's ok.. as long as your doc is willing to learn, is willing to take note of the information available in the RLS Medical Bulletin (see the link in my signature) and actually wants to help you.

You mention the other methods of """" ambien, oxycodone and methadone """. Please be aware that ambien is a sleeping pill and will not help the symptoms of wed. Oxycodon and methadone are opiates that are pretty powerful and perhaps this was too much for your doc to consider. Codeine and Tramadol are at the lower end of the opiate scale and would perhaps be more accepted by your doc.

The RLS Medical Bulletin discusses medications and is something that you should consider taking to your doc visits. Your doc needs to be instilling confidence in you that she will work with you and will learn with you.

With regards to becoming pregnant while on Mirapex I can't help you on this. I know that we had a couple of members posting last year who were successfully pregnant while taking methadone under supervision.

Perhaps an email to Dr Buchfuhrer who is a highly esteemed doctor and author with regard to this condition may be able to provide relevant information. His email address is somno@verizon.net and he generally responds within a day or so.

Or indeed perhaps another of our own members may be able to respond with positive information regarding pregnancy and Mirapex.
Betty
https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation

ViewsAskew
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Location: Los Angeles

Re: Trying to get pregnant

Post by ViewsAskew »

Mirapex is definitely not considered OK for pregnancy.

Most of the people who take it are older, so it hasn't been studied much If you search on pramipexole instead of Mirapex, you might find more results, such as the following:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 8/abstract

Since animal studies show that pramipexole caused problems (http://www.sharecare.com/question/use-p ... f-pregnant), sounds like this may be something only to do if there are no other options. Since we do know that methadone is perfectly safe to the fetus, that is an option.

Many of the pregnant women who come here leave the forum after the baby is born, because many only have WED during pregnancy. I seem to really one woman who found out she was pregnant and had been taking one of the dopamine agonist, but stopped it as soon as she found out. I could be remembering wrong, too....
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

s830632
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:44 am

Re: Trying to get pregnant

Post by s830632 »

Thank you for replying! I was very frustrated with my doctor, she just told me to call my OB and made me an appointment at a sleep clinic, which is in about a week.

I've been going back and forth over whether I should quit now or wait until I find out I'm pregnant. I think I'm just going to wait until next Monday before I do anything. I guess I figure if I was going to do damage as far as getting pregnant, there's really nothing I can do to correct that now, and being sleep deprived probably won't help matters.

Anyways, I will post what I end up finding out.

badnights
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Location: Northwest Territories, Canada

Re: Trying to get pregnant

Post by badnights »

Please do keep in touch. You'll find here a group of people who know you're not crazy or making it all up, and who understand how real and devastating the disease is. The level of ignorance in the medical community still shocks me at times.

Getting pregnant when you have this disease is something you should think about carefully. Read the pregnancy journal by sarahjj who just had her healthy baby a while ago, in this forum. She was on oxycodone before the pregnancy, and was improperly advised by her doctor to stay on it throughout the pregnancy. She finally contacted Dr Buchfuhrer (an RLS/WED specialist in California) who put her on methadone, which, besides suboxone, is I THINK the only WED-effective drug that can be used during pregnancy (but check with someone else).

You're on pramipexole, which is a DA and is used for moderate to severe but non-refractory - non-problematic - WED. If one DA doesn't work, the standard protocol is to try the other. Then try each anticonvulsant - there are 3 of those that are very commonly used for WED - and, if those don't work (or the side effects are unbearable), try various combinatinos of anti-convulsants and DAs. If none of that works, at some point (if you have a good doctor) you get put on a low-potency opioid, perhaps in combination with a DA or an anti-convulsant. IF your WED is very severe and refractory, you need a medium-potency opioid like hydrocodone/Vicodin or a high-potency one like oxycodone. Generally a person tries a number of high-potency opioids without success before they end up on methadone.

I am not sure what any doctor would recommend for you. Jumping straight to methadone seems extreme, but your WED will get worse during pregnancy (almost always). Since it's bad enough to require treatment , the question is whether you can get through your pregnancy without any medication whatsoever - see fraujulie's thread about her pregnancy - and the only medication you can take is methadone. But you can only that methadone if you have a doctor licensed and willing to prescribe it. Many (who don't understand the effects of the disease) would be quite happy to watch you die of insanity and chronic lack of sleep rather than prescribe methadone.

Fraujulie's thread is Pregnant and Miserable - Back to Methadone??, it's also in the Special Populations forum, and both those ladies' threads should be very interesting for you.
Beth - Wishing you a restful sleep tonight
Click for info on WED/RLS AUGMENTATION & IRON
I am a volunteer moderator. My posts are not medical advice. My posts do not reflect RLS Foundation opinion.

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