Sensitive - steroids / Prednisolone reducing nausea?

[IVFat40]

Hello lovelies, I'm currently very lucky to be 9 weeks pregnant, but after 7 previous embryos being transferred and failing I'm feeling very anxious I could lose this pregnancy. I've had no sickness and only very mild nausea and have been worrying this is a bad sign for the pregnancy. Anyway, I stumbled across some information that Prednisolone is used to treat/prevent nausea, and then went down a google rabbit hole and it looks like there's real evidence for this. I'm on 20mg Prednisolone to treat natural killer cells, and now wondering if this is why I'm not getting nausea.

I just wondered if anyone else has experienced this? And also wanted to say to anyone in my situation and worrying, you might not need to be!

[XOXO13]

Hello,

Congratulations on this pregnancy 🌈

I was taking dexamethasone post transfer and up until I was13 weeks pregnant and also had very little symptoms (and I’m carrying twins). I asked my consultant on more than one occasion if it’s normal as it was also making me feel anxious given how lots of women talk about experiencing nausea and she told me that it’s actually very common not to have symptoms, and that the steroids can mask symptoms too!

I’m now 30 weeks pregnant with twins so try to not overthink symptoms or lack off because it really does vary woman to woman.

Wishing you all the best 🤞🏻🍀 xxx

[IVFat40 in reply to XOXO13]

Thank you so much hun that is really reassuring! I only wish more Dr's would tell us these things.Congratulations on your twins, how wonderful 😊 (and not too long to go now)

[XOXO13 in reply to IVFat40]

Nope, not long now! Eek. 🌈🌈 x

[Hope_1234 in reply to XOXO13]

Also 30 weeks with twins. Good luck with the next few weeks lovely xx

[XOXO13 in reply to Hope_1234]

Eek so exciting! Hope it’s all going well? Best of luck to you too 🌈💜 xx

[Seren0119]

Yes! Don't panic

Prednisolone is an absolute last resort for women with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (extreme sickness). It is incredibly powerful and stops nausea and sickness. My consultant doctor confirmed this. I was on 25mg and all was fine x

x

[IVFat40 in reply to Seren0119]

That's brilliant hun, thank you! So reassuring. I'm really really looking forward to stopping prednisolone, but I guess I have to admit it turns out it's got a few up sides 😀 (in addition to the massive one of actually enabling me to be pregnant of course!)

[Donnr]

Hi, I also had absolutely no sickness or nausea throughout my pregnancy and was on 20mg of prednisolone. I was also worried in the beginning, I couldn’t believe I was pregnant because of my lack of symptoms, but after 7 years ttc & 6 attempts at ivf, we had a healthy baby girl in November.

[Sparklylife in reply to Donnr]

Congratulations on your little girl! 💗

[IVFat40 in reply to Donnr]

Congratulations that's wonderful news! And so reassuring to hear others have had a similar experience to me.

[SN3891]

Hi there. I’m in the same boat too. 11 weeks pregnant & I’m still taking prednisolone due to elevated AHA levels & I’ve had little sickness or nausea. With my daughter I had terrible nausea so I was worried like you. I think this is our answer… or perhaps we’ve just been lucky to avoid nausea altogether on the basis that no all pregnancies result in this. Sending hugs & wishing you lots of luck for the rest of your pregnancy xxx

[IVFat40 in reply to SN3891]

Thank you so much hun, it's really sounding like it must be the Prednisolone stopping the worst of the nausea. I guess I should start feeling lucky that I'm avoiding the sickness. It really is so reassuring to hear so many others have had a similar experience. So much luck with your pregnancy too hun 😊

[SN3891 in reply to IVFat40]

Awww thank you xx

[Sparklylife]

Congratulations on your pregnancy!! Very happy for you and I am hoping for a healthy and happy pregnancy for you! I think anxiety is part of the journey - goes up and down I felt! But did get a little easier with time!

Wishing you all the best 🥰

[IVFat40 in reply to Sparklylife]

Thank you!

[Positivechangeplease]

Not getting nausea is not a sign of an issue and getting even mild nausea (is somewhat of a godsend) means you are having sickness and reducing your chance of miscarriage. It’s very hard to not worry when you’re not sure what’s going on - but regardless of the drugs you’re taking I think this is a very healthy sign of pregnancy

[IVFat40 in reply to Positivechangeplease]

Thank you hun

[Shireen1]

Yes, I read it can suppress the symptoms. I am on 10 mg and felt slight nausea for few days when my HCG was 100.000. I am sure I would be 🤮 if I wasn’t on prednisone. Don’t worry and enjoy nausea free pregnancy!

[IVFat40 in reply to Shireen1]

It's been so nice to hear so many women in the position, and it's really allowed me to stop worrying about the nausea, thank you. As you say, at last something good about the horrible steroids (although of course I love them really because they're basically the reason I've been able to get pregnant).

[ki50]

Congratulations on your pregnancy! Could I ask, was it your clinic that tested for nk cells and prescribed the Prednisone? My clinic refuse to prescribe it due to covid and so won't even do the testing, and it seems like for those that do offer it, you have to be having treatment with a clinic before they will do the testing? X

[IVFat40 in reply to ki50]

Thank you! No unfortunately my clinic don't do immune testing and overall can be rather 'conservative' in what they test for in relation to implantation failure. I really found out about immune testing on this forum, and then self-referred to the implantation clinic/trial being run by Warwick University with Coventry hospital. It was only when I had the report and recommendations from the implantation clinic that my clinic were willing to prescribe the steroids. I think the Dr's who run the Warwick/Coventry trial are quite well respected, and they work within the NHS (my clinic is also NHS, albeit I paid privately) and think that may have helped my clinic agree to follow their advice. I should say I did have to be double vaccinated though.

It's so hard having all these extra hoops to jump through isn't, and seems odd/unfair that each clinic is different to the other. I would definitely recommend the Warwick/Coventry trial/clinic, easy to self-refer, I thought the staff were great, and in IVF terms very reasonably priced for what you get. I really feel it's the main reason I eventually managed to get pregnant.

[Millbanks]

Hey lovely, so pleased for you ❤️I was on 20mg prednisolone and am sure that’s why i didn’t get any sickness at all. I was expecting it to hit me when I stopped at 14 weeks but nothing.

Xx

[IVFat40 in reply to Millbanks]

Thank you so much hun! It really is so reassuring others have had the same experience. And really good to hear the sickness didn't all hit you at the 14 weeks too, I'll be tapering off the steroids from 10 weeks and stopping at 12, so was slightly worried I'd get all the nausea saved up then 😆

[Millbanks in reply to IVFat40]

Fingers crossed that you don’t get any. Honestly if it wasn’t for my scans I wouldn’t have believed I was pregnant until about 20 weeks!! Xxx

[IVFat40 in reply to Millbanks]

I know right!

[Hope_1234]

I was also taking prednisolone 20mg and started weaning around 12 weeks. The steriods definitely masked my morning sickness xx

[IVFat40 in reply to Hope_1234]

Thank you hun!