Hi,
I had the bypass in 04 x2 (both sides of my head).  I am now 4 months pregnant and have started to have terrible headaches.  I see my doctors often; I am a RN in the NICU, but there seems to be nothing I can do to rid of the headaches.  The meds they would normally use I can't b/c of the preganancy and they are leaning away from CT, MRI, MRA, etc for the same reason.  Has anyone been or known anyone who had a child after the bypass?  Any issues?  I have never had a stroke, have low blood pressure.  I am already terrified that my child will have the disease b/c of the genetic tendecies so I need a few words of encouragement.  Please, anyone.

Hi Char!  

Good to see you again, and congratulations!

Moyamoya and pregnancy has been a big topic here over the years and discussed quite often and what I gathered from it all is, it was safe to carry and deliver only if you had successful treatment (surgery) for MM, otherwise there would be dangerous risks.

Everyone had your same concern about the baby having MM. I remember Lisa asking Dr. Steinberg about it (a leading MM specialist) and she posted that he said, it wasn’t likely the baby would have it, IF there weren’t any history of MM in the family.

I’m sorry to hear you’re having headaches. It’s hard to suggest why or if MM is involved, every case is so different, but it would be the same concerns as in any pregnancy, like you said, meds/tests could possibly harm the baby. God Bless ya!

I wish I could be of more help. Please know we're here for you though. You will always have a wonderful group of people here for support and friendship through it all. Feel free to just vent or ask questions, it may help.

You and the baby will be in my thoughts and prayers always.

Mar

Good Morning All.  

I also have some of the same worries.  I don't have moyamoya myself but my daughter has it and had the surgery this past March.  We are now pregnant with twins and it crosses my mind all the time that the babies might have it.  Has anyone had this happen?

Hi Charlotte,
I had my bypass surgeries in June and November 2001 and had my second child in 2003. There was no concern whatsoever from my neurologist and my neurosurgeon. I was seeing an obgyn who closely monitored my progress and kept in VERY close contact with my neuro team. The only thing they all insisted on was having a caesarean at 36 weeks and after going through a natural birth before with my first child I was quite happy for this to occur!! You should not overly concern yourself as there have been other people on this site who have had children since - Emma on this site has had the bypasses and is also pregnant and doing well.
My headaches went away whilst I was pregnantas the volume of blood flow increases for the baby. Please feel free to PM me if you want any answers
Moira

Thank you for the response.  My headaches have worsened.  I am having to go part time at work because of them and file the FMLA so that my attendence doesn't count too much against me.  I am lucky that I work on a unit that deals with MM so they understand my short-comings as far as attendence, but I am just so worried for my child.  My MM is ischemic so I don't worry about strokes, just the headaches are so diabling.  
So did you have headaches before the pregnancy and they stopped?  Before the pregnancy I didn't have many and only one or two were really bad.  Now I get them about every other day and I am in bed all day.  Any suggestions?
Thank you again.