T1 diabetes, pregnancy and retinopathy

[Gingerbreadpixie]

Hi. Are there any pregnant T1s who have had changes/background retinopathy detected in the back of their eyes during pregnancy?

I'm 24 weeks pg, been type 1 for 3 years, and just had my second trimester DECS screening and the result came through as "early changes detected". As my January screening was all clear I was quite surprised and a bit upset things have changed so quickly. My hba1c was 7 at conception, went down to 5.8 in first trimester and was 5.6 about a month ago.

Anyone else have experience of this? Did it progress? Get better? Id like to hear from others with experience if anyone else has had this. Thanks.

Me again lol i had no changes in my 1st trimester, then same early diabetic changes in my 2nd trimester freaked out totally got to speak to one of the people who take the pics and was told 'try not to worry it doesnt require treatment' to concentrate on controlling my diabetes which obv i was doing. My 3rd trimester came back as same as 2nd initially then to my horror i got a call 2 weeks before delivery saying that the 2nd person to look at my pics (apparently this is standard) decided i needed to be reffered to opthamology to be double checked as my results were 'borderline' again i freaked and its still nigling away at my of im honest. Im still waiting on the appt coming through so been like 7 weeks tho i kinda expected it as the woman who called said it would be 2-3 months and again not to stress that pregnancy can make retionapthy progress more quickly and that it may settle or even improve after delivery which is what im crossing my fingers for. You should get in touch with rue from the diabetes thread as she has been through alot with her eyes and really supported me during my freak outs and answered lots of my questions and gave my hope.

Thanks hopingfor. I'll head over to the diabetes thread x

I had been a type 1 diabetic for 20 years when I got pregnant with my first child. I did have early diabetic changes during pregnancy, but nothing needing treatment. I had my second child 16 months after my first, and again had early changes during pregnancy. The consultants weren't at all worried about it and said it was usual even with very tight control of the diabetes.

My youngest is now nearly 3, and the retinopathy settled very quickly after having my second child. Nothing needed treatment, and the changes have settled down and there's no long term damage to my eyes.

Thanks kitty. That's good to hear :)

With my son, I developed retinopathy and needed laser treatment towards the end. Unfortuanately this did not prevent the disease from progressing and around a year post partum I developed advanced pdr in both eyes and had a severe haemorrhage. I ended up having 5 x laser and a vitrectomy on one eye and 4 x laser on the other. I was worried I would not be able to have any more children but saw a private consultant who recommended extra laser to protect me in a further pregnancy.
I'm now 35 weeks and had regular eye checks, all is well so far, it seems stable and the hospital don't want to see me again for 6 months.
I think a lot of the issues may have been due to reducing my hba1c very rapidly when I found out I was pregnant as the pregnancy was unplanned. This coupled with the growth hormones and the fact that my eyes were untreated at that point was a bit of a toxic combination for my eyes.
This time round it has been ok so far (touches wood) and all the laser seems to be protecting me, although you can never get too complacent with retinopathy.