Travel and TTC - Zika Concerns

[Bee1100]

Hello everyone,

My DH and I will be TTC our first child soon but I have a major concern - we are traveling to Asia in May for a friends wedding and there is a risk of Zika there. I am a bridesmaid so I have to go, plus we booked and paid for our flights and the accommodation early last year so I really can't cancel.

Can anyone give me ANY advice on what to do? When you research online most advice is to:

1. Not visit ANY country where there is even a remote risk of Zika
2. Not have unprotected sex for 6 months upon returning from a Zika zone. That is SUCH a long time to wait for someone who is TTC their first child in their mid-30's :(

I have researched where we are going - Singapore - and there has been no Zika clusters since September 2017 and the City is incredibly hot on their Zika prevention. We will be in the main touristy Downtown areas and probably in air con places for half the time.

Another thing that I can't help but think is there are so many couples (especially expat couples) trying to conceive or currently pregnant in Singapore - how do they deal with this "threat"?

If anyone has travelled whilst TTC / pregnant or has any advice i'd be so grateful to hear it. Thanks!

Honestly I would wait the six months. I have a five month old born with a congenital abnormality and the whole experience is so hard - for us it was surgery and then a long stay in NICU. His condition is completely random, there is absolutely no way I could cope if there was even a small chance I had caused it.

Six months feels like a long time now but it's not worth it.

Rockandrollwithit thanks so much for your response. I am very sorry you are going through such a tough experience with your little one and I really appreciate your advice. I hope he/she is doing OK

You are right - in the grand scheme of things six months isn't long to wait to ensure I have done what I can to prevent any issues down the line. When you have the idea of starting a family firmly in your head everything just feels so stressful and time precious... but I guess I need to put things into perspective.

I am 34 years old, never been pregnant before and have wanted to have a baby for so long (DH wasn't ready until now). I worry time may not be on my side. I have such a frustrating yet lovely reason (the wedding) to not be able to start TTC for another 9 months from now, it'll be the winter before we can consider it.

You can have a private test after 10 weeks xxx

After 10 weeks coming back from the country affected sorry x

I don’t think you have to wait 6 months - only if you have been bitten! Double check but I think I was under the same impression as you but found I was wrong. Just take all precautions not to be bitten (100% Deet spray, apply religiously) and if you and your partner aren’t bitten I think it’s 8 weeks before you can start trying... Double check obviously but this is what I thought.

Thanks Teetotal2018 I guess that is a very good option to check if either of us was bitten by a Zika infected mosquito or come back feeling unwell. I didn't realise it could be up to 10 weeks after the potential bite??

The chances of contracting Zika are pretty low and my friend knows people in Singapore who have had children or are pregnant - apparently they aren't too worried about it and just make sure they wear insect repellant. There is so much scary information online warning you not to travel and then you have people who live in those zones saying that they just get on with it and it hasn't really crossed their mind too much!!

We went to a Zika area too for our honeymoon and I spoke at length with my gp about TTC as we wanted to straight away. I'm mid 30s too so understand your thinking there!
She said to absolutely wait the 6 months. She also said that the 10 week test is not 100% accurate and that she personally wouldn't trust it.
We have waited. 2 weeks to go! To be honest it's flown by and we've used the time to get ourselves in the best financial position we can get to before we TTC.
Just think- if anything went wrong would you be able to forgive yourselves for the sake of a few months?

tailspin Thank you - Yes there appears to be a bit of conflicting information in regards to TTC on return from a Zika infected country. I think for women you only have to wait 8 weeks but for men they could carry the virus for 6 months in their semen.

A lot of people say that you may not realise you have been bitten as your skin may not have a reaction and produce the typical mossie bite we are used to, or you may have even contracted Zika but not have any symptoms? Hence why maybe we should wait 6 months just to be sure anything dangerous is out of our systems.

There is obviously the pressure that my husband has to be extra cautious too - it's not just me that needs to be vigilant with the mosquito repellant. I am going to have to keep an eye on him to ensure he does everything properly!!

I just pray that neither of us get bitten and hopefully we can book ourselves in for a private blood test on our return to put our minds at rest....

constanlyworrying (I like your name a lot!) Thanks for replying. I haven't gone to my Dr / OBGYN yet as I am basically scared she is going to say the same thing and then it all becomes a reality :(

I think I just need to distract myself like you have done and get myself prepared with the rest of my life. We are literally the only couple in our friendship group's and family who don't have a child or aren't pregnant so it just gets so hard at times when all I want is to start a family. Now we are finally ready, something else gets in the way.

This situation is self inflicted and I could cancel the trip (which I'm sure some people would suggest) but I just can't. I am too loyal a friend and I am not someone who would change my future plans because I want to try for a baby or might pregnant. I am very contradictory I know!!

My friend has just been advised by her NHS fertility consultant (at the hospital where she is having IVF) that the private Zika test is accurate and he recommended it to her x

That's very interesting news, thanks Teetotal2018.

I think I will have to tick all of the boxes -
Travel and enjoy my life
Take the blood tests on return
Make a decision based on the results and Dr advice.

Either way, unfortunately for me I don't think we will be TTC until at least the summer. No winter baby for me :-(

Ahh you don't want a winter baby- you'll get all hot and bothered at the end of your pregnancy- at least a summer baby will allow you to wallow in pools to cool down rather than looking a sweaty mess in winter! #silverlinings!!

I would also recommend the private test. We paid for that & it gave us peace of mind, as we really didn't want to wait 6 months. I'm not about what pp said about it not being 100% accurate - as far as I was told l, it is.

We had this a couple of years ago as DH had to go to South America for Work. We waited the 6 months as recommended. At the end of the day, I just imagined how I’d feel if (however small the chance) we ended up conceiving a baby with a problem.

6 months really isn’t that long to wait in the grand scheme of ttc - it took 15 months to conceive ds in the end...

Thanks OP, he's doing really well now. It looks like there will be no long term effects 😀

I think you are doing the right thing but I completely understand your impatience. When we decided to TTC for our first I wanted to be pregnant immediately and thought the ten months it took was the longest time ever.

Good luck and enjoy the wedding.