Unfortunately, there has been minimal research on the subject of the effects and risks of pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period on women with ME/CFS. The questions of, whether or not the course of ME/CFS changes during or as a result of pregnancy, or whether or not the experience of pregnancy and childbirth is different for women with ME/CFS, have yet to be definitively answered[
1].
The most detailed study to date by Schacterle and Komaroff in 2004, of 86 women regarding 252 pregnancies that occurred before or after the onset of ME/CFS, found, interestingly, a number of women with ME/CFS reported a complete cessation of their symptoms during pregnancy (approximately a third improve, a third get worse and about 40% feel no change). The results after pregnancy are similar, if a little lower percentages (about 20%) for those that improve and those that get worse. Some physicians have suggested that the sudden increase in pregnancy-related hormones are most likely responsible for recovery in these cases. However they were unable to identify the factors which influence whether a particular woman will recover or worsen during pregnancy.
The same study, found that the rate of miscarriages (termed spontaneous abortions in the scientific literature) was higher for pregnancies occurring after
vs. before ME/CFS (30%
vs. 8%), but no differences in rates of other complications. Developmental delays or learning disabilities were reported more often (21 %
vs. 8%) in the offspring of women who became pregnant after
vs. before ME/CFS. However they concluded: “Pregnancy did not consistently worsen the symptoms of ME/CFS. Most maternal and infant outcomes were not systematically worse in pregnancies occurring after the onset of ME/CFS. The higher rates of spontaneous abortions and of developmental delays in offspring that we observed
could be explained by maternal age or parity differences, and should be investigated by larger, prospective studies with control populations.”
To unpick that, the women having children after their diagnosis of ME/CFS were of course older than they were when they had their child before they had ME/CFS. This could explain the rates of miscarriage and developmental delays, hence the need for studies with larger sample sizes and control groups.