Why the study?
Heart transplantation raises complex issues in pregnancy, and pregnancy in a heart transplant recipient after pelvic irradiation requires multidisciplinary care to prevent maternal and foetal complications.
Successful pregnancy and live birth are possible in heart transplant recipients following pelvic irradiation and chemotherapy if fertility preservation and multidisciplinary care are employed.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Supports individualized fertility counseling in heart transplant recipients needing pelvic irradiation; leaves open need for prospective outcome data.
BACKGROUND: Fertility preservation must be discussed with reproductive age women before cancer treatment. Heart transplantation raises complex issues in pregnancy. Pregnancy in a heart transplant woman after pelvic irradiation involves close multidisciplinary follow-up to avoid complications in the mother and the foetus. We report the first live birth in a heart transplant woman after pelvic irradiation, chemotherapy and fertility preservation. CASE PRESENTATION: A 36-year-old heart transplant woman with pelvic non-Hodgkin lymphoma spared her fertility, with cryopreservation of oocytes and embryos, before chemotherapy and pelvic irradiation. After multidisciplinary discussion and pre-conception evaluation, pregnancy was achieved. A close follow-up by a multidisciplinary team allowed a normal pregnancy without maternal or foetal complications and the delivery of a healthy infant. CONCLUSIONS: Achieving pregnancy in heart transplant women with iatrogenic ovarian failure after oncologic treatment including pelvic irradiation is possible and can be successful. Careful and close surveillance by a multidisciplinary team is mandatory due to increased risk of maternal and foetal complications.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Pais et al. (2019) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: