Factor V Leiden and first time pregnancy

[Tuppers85]

Hi all

This is my first pregnancy and I am 11w5d. I was diagnosed with Factor V Leiden when I was 19 and told it may affect pregnancy but no more detail than that! My consultant's appointment isn't until the end of September so wondered if anyone had any experiences to share with me? Am I likely to be induced?

Thank you!

Hello :) Many of my family have factor v, they have all had normal births full term (we only recently found out about it.)

Best of luck :)

Hi,

I have this and have four beautiful, healthy children.

I was given clexane to inject daily throughout the pregnancies and for six weeks after. Despite this I did have a DVT in my first pregnancy so had to have an increased dose of clexane.

There was concern of bleeding during birth but despite this I had four relatively straight forward labours, two of which were planned home births.

If there is anything you want to ask, just shout.

Congrats and hope all goes well for you x

Hi - also factor V here. I take 75mg of aspirin daily to prevent the blood clotting across the umbilical cord. That, and the risks associated with C section are the biggest risks. Unlikely (so I've been told!) to affect whether you're induced or not. My mum has it too, and she haemorrhaged badly when she gave birth to me. It's great that you know about it - the consultants tell me that it's the people who don't know they have it who are at the most risk.

Are you taking asprin?

Congrats on your pregnancy :)

oh and depends whether you're heterozygous or homozygous (sp?!) as to treatment etc!

Thank you for your kind messages.

I am heterozygous and not taking any aspirin or injections yet as I'm not due to see a consultant until I am 16 weeks which seems a little late?

Typically we booked a holiday to Greece the day before we found out I was pregnant (flying in 2 weeks) and I have stocked up on compression stockings. However, I can feel myself stressing about it already :-(

Heterozygous is better :) (that's what i am too!) ..better as in, less of a problem :)

Don't want to worry you, but since you mentioned about your consultant...I wasn't due to meet my consultant until late on either (actually 18 weeks) ...and we unfortunately lost our first baby last year due to clotting (that's what came out afterwards) at 17 weeks. :(

With this pregnancy, I've been taking aspirin since the moment I found out I was pregnant. They had me in with the consultant at 7 wks, and have been monitoring me since. (but only presumably because of what happened last year, not necessarily because I am factor V, if that makes sense)

It still haunts me that if I had been taking aspirin in my first pregnancy, we might not have lost our child so late on. I'm not a doctor, but my consultant says (if you have factor v leiden) it's fairly harmless to take low dose aspirin. Literally x1 tiny tablet dissolved in water a day. It's most effective especially in early pregnancy at preventing clotting issues across the cord.

Given that you are also flying in two weeks, can you not get a doctor's appointment and ask about taking aspirin just in case? Also, don't forget, it's not a good idea to get too hot/sunbathe when you're pregnant, so make sure you get the shade at midday! :)

I'm not sure whether it's the hetero or homozygous one but I think there's also an issue with being able to process folic acid so you should be on a high dose. You can only get it with a prescription so you'll need to ask your GP to prescribe you 5mg instead of the 400ug you get in the shops.