CIU and pregnancy

Posted , 3 users are following.

Hello. I'm new to this forum, recently diagnosed with CIU after 6 weeks of back and forth to the doctors and daily outbreaks/constant irritation.

When I was diagnosed my husband and I had currently been trying to conceive. My dermatologist has adivsed against this now due to the drugs necessary to try and keep the CIU at bay.

Has anyone here been pregnant with CIU or been pregnant and taken antihistamines regulary?

At the moment I'm on 40mg of cetirizine daily plus 50-75mg of a sedating antihistamine at night. Have also tried a short course of steriods (prednisone) and ranitidine but neither helped and my current medication is not preventing the several times a day outbreaks either. 

I'm really trying to decide if I could go the first trimester of pregnancy without anything and just try to get through the 90 days and then be able to take small doses of loratidine or cetirizine for the remainder of the pregnancy or if I am going to have to give up the idea of another baby altogether.

Any experiences surrounding this would be great to hear smile

0 likes, 7 replies

7 Replies

  • Posted

    |Hi

    My advice is try to figure out what triggered your hives. James has just begun a discussion about his hives. His trigger was pressure and going wheat free helped him. Mine is pressure also but in addition I had 'leaky gut syndrome' as another trigger plus stress.  I am free now - I had a permeability test to determine if I did have leaky gut, which I did, went wheat free plus other restrictions but was also given meds cyclosporine by my specialist. I am now in remission, hives not totally gone as I've recently been under stress and I had a very small outbreak, now gone. The triggers are different for everyone so you have to really think hard about what might be yours.  A period of ill health can also upset your immune system and can be a trigger as well.  Good luck

    • Posted

      Hi Lorraine - thanks for your reply. As far as my doctor's concerned there is no cause it's 'just one of those cases that occur'. I tried going gluten/wheat and dairy free for weeks just in case but with no difference.

      My mum suspects they could have been triggered by stress which is entirely possible as we have had some in our lives but the problem is that is just a trigger and not ongoing cause..

      As we are unlikely to ever know the trigger for sure I just want to find the best way to cope with what is likely to be an ongoing long battle!

      I have not been sick at all - in fact I never get sick and have never had any kind of health or skin issues which is what makes this even more surprising. 

      I am very active and eat a very healthy unprocessed diet so no changes to make there either...

    • Posted

      Hi, don't know how old you are but the older you get the more stress acts on the immune system. Do you live in UK - if you do try to get a referral to see a Dr Sabroe she is a specialist dermatologist at Sheffield Hallamshire hospital and there is nothing she does not know about CIU.

      I had a nutrionalist organise a gut permeability test for me and I didn't think I had leaky gut but I did and I feel so much better now. Goodluck

      Good lu

    • Posted

      Hi again

      Do you get a rash or weal from pressure or do the hives just appear? Lifestyles nowadays with work, money and socialising is more stressing than years ago. I'm 61 and life as a young women was far less stressed than now. No Facebook, no Twitter, no mobiles. We either met up or spoke in real time on a landline which meant less misunderstandings therefore less stress. Stress upsets the immune system which could be you cause and trigger.

    • Posted

      They just appear and there seems to be no pattern to it. I've kept a diary of what I eat and do and when the breakouts happen but no consistency at all.

      Yesterday I was having the flare ups all day so it seems the cetirizine is doing nothing at all to prevent or reduce these sad

      Yes I agree with the stress comments, if only there was an easy way to eliminate that smile

    • Posted

      Hi Lorraine - I'm 34 but live in New Zealand. Thanks for the thoughts though smile
    • Posted

      New thought!  My troubles started when I came off hormone replacement therapy at 60. Oestrogen level changes can also be a trigger for CIU. There's alot of different reasons for it. My specialist refuses to accept the word 'idiopathic' and prefers the term Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria.  I wonder of 'cavemen' got it or is it a modern phenomina?

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