CT scan before TTC

[Golden24]

Hi there,
Has anyone had a abdomen and pelvic CT scan before TTC or before having a baby?
I am worried about the the radiation exposure. Any advice would be helpful or anyone who is in a similar position.
Thanks

I had an abdominal ct scan in 2016, and had my 2nd pregnancy in 2022, no issues. I know that's quite a long time in between. Took me about 1 year to get pregnant, but I do have some fertility issues.

Thanks @GG1986. Do you know if your CT scan included your pelvis or not?

I assume there's a medical need for you to have a CT scan op?

Have the scan, speak to the professionals

Hi @BloodyAdultDC,
Yes I’ve had the scan. My partner and I want to have another baby and I just wanted some advice from others who had been through similar.

I'm not sure sorry. It was to check for possible kidney stones, so probably included bladder area.

Can anyone else offer some advice or has anyone been in a similar situation? Thanks

I've had a pelvic CT and now have a healthy 3 week old baby. I also had a chest CT whilst I was pregnant with him due to a suspected pulmonary embolism. They said the radiation was very low, about a year of day to day exposure or a couple of transatlantic flights

What is concerning you specifically?

@polkadotpixie thanks for the reply and congratulations!
I’m just worried if the radiation will affect fertility / ovaries in any way and cause mutations.

I did. My oncologist wanted me to have an abdominal and pelvic CT scan to see if there was any cancer recurrence before TTC. I had the scan and then waited for one cycle to start trying, to avoid using the egg that was maturing during the scans was exposed to the contrast. Took two months to conceive, my one year old is healthy and beautiful.

@Dolma congratulations! That’s wonderful :)
Did you have another other CT scans or was that the only one?

The damage from radiation is cleared by the body within days. There may be long term damage but that takes many years to come out apparently.

Can anyone else offer any more advice or have been through something similar?

What more do you want to know OP? Thousands of CT scans are performed annually, thousands more have babies annually. Speak to your GP.

they wouldn't do CTs on women of childbearing age if there was any evidence at all that it caused genetic problems. Would you consider avoiding long-haul travel/visiting Cornwall/any of the other things that slightly increase someone's radiation exposure for the same reason? The .gov.uk website has useful information re. the radiation dosing from different imaging modalities - a CT abdo pelvis is equivalent to about 4.5 yrs background exposure (or about 1.5yrs if you live in Cornwall). The risk of any procedure also has to be balanced against the risk of not doing it - becoming pregnant with some sort of unresolved abdomino-pelvic pathology could have a higher chance of causing problems than a minute's exposure in the scanner.

@OchAyeTheN00 I'm just very worried about any genetic mutations that could be passed on but also the long term cancer risk. It seems a high radiation dose. Can any radiologists advise?

Every CT scan performed is reviewed beforehand to make sure the benefit of having the scan and subsequent diagnosis outweighs any risk from the radiation. CT of the abdo pelvis is usually avoided in the early days of pregnancy ( unless it was an emergency you would have been asked when your last period was) A CT scan will not affect your future fertility but if you continue to worry then you are best contacting the department and ask to speak to one of the medical physicists to explain to you and put your mind at rest.

@Golden24 www.gov.uk/government/publications/medical-imaging-what-you-need-to-know/medical-imaging-what-you-need-to-know--2#risks

Best you speak to your GP.

It isn’t a high radiation dose in the grand scheme of things. I had at least 5 CT scans (and 2 PET scans) before conceiving my child - he’s a perfectly healthy and normal 1 year old.

@User164957261942629 Aw congratulations 😊 were the scans of your abdo pelvis?

@Golden24 if it makes you feel better about the what ifs, then just wait for one full cycle to start TTC so that egg that was maturing isn’t affected. But then the rest of it, it’s an all or nothing thing and if you think you should never get pregnant again then please speak to your GP

Yes they all were. I had one about three weeks before I conceived.