I have a high white bloodcell count - what does that mean?

[CherryPie3]

Sorry if it's a really obvious question - but I have no idea what this means...

I was just told at at my mw appointment yesterday, should I be asking questions?

It means an infection of some sort - have you had a cold? That's what had mine through the roof.

As someone completely NOT medically qualified, I thought this could sometimes be a sign of infection somewhere in the body - but surely if your MW thought something was wrong she'd have said so / indicated what treatment you need. Can you ring her and ask about it?

are you feeling well? it's also possible to have a subclinical infection (i.e. no symptoms).

I feel completely fine - I've got hayfever tho, would cause them to go up?

She didn't seem particularly worried - she was more bothered that she had to do my repeat blood again cos not enough blood was taken last time (I don't have very good veins).

As long as my body is doing what it's supposed to be I'm not bothered either.

Don't know if this makes any difference but I'm 28wks pregnant? Can pregnancy make white bloods go up?

White blood cells are to do with your body's immune reaction. Your white blood cell count goes up in pregnancy anyway, so a high count is not necessarily a sign that anything's wrong. Usually you can correlate the spike with something like a cold, or a urinary tract infection. But some people just have naturally high counts that go up even further in pregnancy I do. Mine have been at the 99th percentile of the normal range since my first blood test, and I've been having weekly tests since 28 weeks to check my count because it went up dramatically at my 28 week test turned out it was probably just my body fighting off my DH's cold, because it's back down again.

Very unusually, it can be a very early pre-diagnostic sign of pre-eclampsia, but they will only worry if you've got high blood pressure and protein in your urine as well. Very very rarely it might be a sign of an amniotic fluid infection, but if you're otherwise feeling fine, it won't be that.

If your midwife and GP are not worried, then you shouldn't be.

or, the very very rarely bit could be the sign of an infection that you need to follow up - if they repeat the bloods and they are fine get them to go back and recheck the original bloods to find out what the infection was. Believe me it is worth the hassle......

I had it too in my last pregnancy, but apparently it's quite normal. I had the bloods taken twice, few months apart and the count stayed the same or perhaps it went down...don't remember. I also read somewhere that it will go up if you have been excersizing just before the test- I was running for the first one, so maybe that affected it. Anyhow, apparently it's pretty common in pg, midwives weren't concerned.

*exercising

Interesting points raised - thank you. I recently had a UTI - about 3 weeks ago, treated with anti-biotics. Could that have affected the white blood cell count even though it was a while ago?

Sorry I don't mean to interrogate you all, my mw isn't concerned so I know I shouldn't be in theory but I'm a natural worrier when I'm pregnant

That could be it.

But also it is normal in pregnancy.

What was your count? I'll go and check my notes and hopefully reassure you.

means an infection. nothing to worry about unless very elevated. you probably had a low level bug or virus of some sort on the day the blood was taken which raised your level, unless it was very elevated - in which case your doctor/midwife would have done something about it, its nothing to worry about. my white cell counts go up and down every time I get blood taken.