Q. I have MS. My sister is considering getting pregnant. As this is often a trigger for MS onset, is there a genetic test available for family of MS patients to test their susceptibility to the disease?
The idea of pregnancy "triggering" MS onset requires a little clarification. Pregnancy itself does not cause MS - in fact, MS symptoms usually get much better or disappear during pregnancy (which I experienced when I was pregnant with twins) and there are actually several clinical trials that are using hormones found at high levels in pregnancy as treatment for MS (prolactin and estriol)- these are really exciting and are showing great promise.
What DOES happen is that many women experience fairly bad relapses within 6 weeks of giving birth (also happened to me). This is probably due to a drop in the hormones that I mentioned, as well as the immune system returning to normal (and none of this is helped by the rigors of caring for a newborn..or two). In a case where it appears that pregnancy "caused" or "triggered" MS, it was probably a situation where the woman had a subclinical case of MS prior to pregnancy and experienced her first relapse in the post-partum period.
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