Pregnancy

[Daisy_]

Hi all, when you're pregnant and receive a diagnosis of pernicious anaemia, does this go after the birth or is it likely to be a lifelong condition do you think? Tia.

[TiredPie]

Lifelong as far as I'm aware, I'm 27 weeks and had my first injection today, after getting diagnosed recently.

[Penni]

My Pernicious Anemia was diagnosed after my daughter was born in Dec 09 after my blood count dropped to very dangerous levels. Over 7 years on I still have it. I also had very bad post natal depression which was also linked to my pernicious anemia

[Gambit62 Administrator]

PA is sometimes used a bit loosely as a catch all for B12 deficiency.

B12 can be lower during pregnancy without having PA but if it is caused by PA rather than the pregnancy then it isn't going to resolve when the pregnancy ends.

PA is, strictly speaking an auto-immune condition in which the body attacks elements of your body that allow B12 to be absorbed in the ileum.

Suggest that you ask for clarification on what exactly you have been diagnosied as having - low B12 or PA.

PA in the strict sense is diagnosed by a test called IFA but having a negative result doesn't actually mean you don't have PA as it is prone to false negatives.

[clivealive Forum Support]

Are you supplementing with folic acid?