Pregnancy in Multiple Sclerosis: A Questionnaire Study

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) preferentially affects females at childbearing age. For this reason patients and treating physicians were frequently confronted with questions concerning family planning, pregnancy and birth. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the expertise about pregnancy related topics in multiple sclerosis of neurologists in private practice. METHODS: We developed a survey with 16 multiple choice questions about pregnancy related topics and sent it to neurologists in private practice in Berlin, Germany. RESULTS: 56 completed questionnaires were sent back. 54% of all questions were answered correctly, 21% of the questions were answered with "I don't know". Correct answers were more often given by physicians who treat more than 400 MS patients per year (p = 0.001). Further positive associations were found for assumed relevance of the topic (p = 0.002) and the degree of counseling (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: To provide a comprehensive counseling, MS patients with desire for children should be counseled by physicians with a lot of experience in MS treatment.