Should a woman who has IgAN bear children?
This is a tough call and one that can be made only on an individual basis, after careful consultation with your nephrologist. You may not have to worry about transmitting it to your unborn child (its not communicable to a fetus like AIDS), but you do have to worry about whether IgAN will affect your baby in other ways and whether pregnancy might accelerate progression of the disease in you. Studies generally agree that women who do NOT have hypertension or impaired renal function have a very good chance of producing a healthy infant, with no adverse effects to their own health. According to guidelines published by one researcher, this means that your blood pressure must consistently be under 140/90 mm Hg and your serum creatinine no more than 1.1. mg/dL (equivalent to a glomerular filtration rate of 70 ml/min or better) before you become pregnant. Hypertension may be brought on by pregnancy, but if it can be controlled by medication it should pose no threat to the fetus. Women with chr
