Long-term outcomes 5 years after HELLP

[ozierja]

Wow...that is all I can say...

[dohertyab]

not to be a pollyanna - but it can also be read as 3 our of 4 who had HELLP don't get it a second time. I know I was a lucky one, but as with everything I think there's probably more to it that just HELLP. Underlying conditions as well as a lot of other factors play into which category you may fall. Learn all you can (Caryn certainly helps with that!) and talk to the specialists who can look at your particular situation before making the huge decision to have or not have any more pregnancies.

[catherine]

I'm with Andrea, 75% of us don't end up dealing with it again, no matter how severe our problems at the time, so the "doom and gloom merchants" who couldn't keep their opinions on our future lack of reproductive choice to themselves when we were trapped in our hospital beds were incorrect.

I'm psyched to see that 8 years on, I'm not falling into any of those sucky "consequences" categories! Yeah me... especially when I consider how "betrayed" by my physiology I felt in the couple of years after Lucy's birth. Clearly, living is the best revenge!

[bordergurl72]

Ugh, not what I want to read when I am finally feeling like i might give TTC a go!

[atvlady]

Ok ladies let's get some positive vibes in here :) Unfortunatley those of us that were affected by these syndromes IS now a statistic. I asked my mfm what my chances would be and he said I had a 25 to 40 % chance of having either pre-e or HELLP ( I had PIH, severe pre-e and severe HELLP at 20 weeks). As I set and read these forums and other sites on the net, I get so incredibly nervous and my thought is we have a 50% chance at it anyway you look at it. And if they say 1 in 4, then that means out of the first four women that TTC or is pregnant, one of the 4 "will" get one of those syndromes or worsely, more. My thoughts, I have a greater chance of getting into a car wreck or much worse dying in a accident then I do getting one of these syndromes. I am mad and furious how this has affected my/our lives so I am NOT giving into those numbers, not yet anyway. IF I do have pre-e or HELLP again, then I am going to think twice but I do have underlying conditions.
That leads me to my question.....of the 1 in 4, was that with or without underlying conditions or ones that it *just happened*? I am curious. VERY :D

[jgrumet]

This study is missing big pieces for me. It doesn't say anything about Underlying conditions, family history, or if more of the woen who had the subsequent pregnancies were even a higher percentage of clinically anxious/depressed..or become chronic.

[caryn]

Well, that's because they were looking at whether or not you were more or less likely to develop subsequent complications based on the gestational age at which you developed HELLP.

The really tricky thing about HELLP is population size. It is hard to get a big enough population of women to answer some of the questions we'd like to answer.

[jgrumet]

I guess this study is good for the women who got hellp early on. It just seems crazy that they didn't even use 200 women (I know they probably couldn't find that many) to do the study.

As far as basing this study on having another pregnancy or worrying about complications down the road..well...the size of researched group as well as tons of other factors would need to be added in order for me to feel that I was in real danger of being on dialysis or going to become clinically depressed in the near future.

[eleni]

Sorry for the shameless plug for a Preeclampsia Foundation event, but this is a very interesting discussion so you may be interested...

Come on out to Chicago for the Patient Symposium on Oct. 23. We'll be discussing this topic in more detail with some of the leading experts in HELLP and preeclampsia, including those ever burning questions about recurrence. Registration form is [url="http://www.preeclampsia.org/pdf/patient_symp.pdf"] here [/url]. We have a limited number of seats and they are filling, but we do still have availability.

The [url="http://www.preeclampsia.org/pressroom/content.aspx?pressid=8214003"]speakers have been announced[/url], as well.

[jean]

What ever came of this? Did they discuss it at the Symposium? Did they come up with any different numbers?