How Rubella impacts your pregnancy
Rubella is more commonly known as German measles or 3-day measles. It is not typically severe in childhood, but if you contract it while pregnant it can be very dangerous to your fetus.
Untreated Rubella complications to fetus:
- Blindness
- Heart defects
- Hearing loss or deficiencies
- Mental Impairment
We recommend testing for Rubella immunity prior to pregnancy. If no immunity exists, then you will be encouraged to receive the vaccine one month prior to getting pregnant or beginning fertility treatment.
Varicella
Varicella is more commonly known as Chickenpox and is caused by the Varicella zoster virus. It can wreak havoc on both mother and fetus during pregnancy. Contraction in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy could lead to severe birth defects.
If we determine you are not immune to Chickenpox, we will recommend vaccination in 2 doses, 4 weeks apart. You should wait until 30 days following your last dose to try to become pregnant.
HIV
AIDS is caused by the HIV virus. HIV can lay dormant for years and cause no symptoms in the person. From time to time, we see women who did not even know they were carrying the virus.
Getting screened early prior to pregnancy will reduce the risk of transmission to your baby or partner. Since there is a 1 in 4 chance you could transfer HIV to your child if you were unaware of the infection, it is important that you consider viral testing.
Treatment to lower the risk of infection to your baby is available, but only if you test for a positive result or inform your doctor.
Hepatitis B & C
Simple blood tests can screen for these infectious disease viruses that can be transmitted through blood, bodily fluids or childbirth. Getting screened early prior to pregnancy will reduce the risk of transmission to your baby or partner.
Hepatitis B is a virus that can be transmitted through blood or body fluids. If you have this disease, you can carry it and infect others. Our fertility evaluation includes screening for both Hepatitis B and C through a simple blood test. If you have the disease and find that you are pregnant, medication can be given at the time of childbirth so that your baby does not get the disease.
Congenital Syphilis
We screen for this to make sure that you do not pass the disease to your baby. If you may carry syphilis it is important to be tested prior to getting pregnant as, your child could develop symptoms after birth including deafness, teeth deformities and saddle nose.
Gonorrhea & Chlamydia
Often the symptoms of these two sexually transmitted diseases are not immediately seen. They can be passed on through semen fluid in unprotected sex and other sexual devices that are used frequently in an infected partner.
If you are having infertility issues, you will be tested for gonorrhea. Undetected, this sexually transmitted disease could lead to tubal problems that can make you infertile and lead to ectopic pregnancies. If you are currently pregnant and have this infection, it is easily treated with antibiotics so that you do not pass on to your newborn. At Inovi we test all patients prior to beginning an IVF cycle
With Chlamydia bacteria, it not only affects fertility but it can also wreck havoc in both the male and female genital tract. If untreated, it can cause conjunctivitis in the eye and pneumonia in a newborn. In certain cases, women who carry these bacteria may find themselves with tubal scarring that can result in infertility. Screening is done through culturing the woman’s cervical mucus or a man’s semen.
