Last night I jokingly lamented that the last two years’ health problems can be directly or indirectly attributed to having a child later in life with medical intervention. Directly, I required a hysterectomy and pelvic floor repair two years ago. Indirectly, in my lay-informed opinion, the multiple hormone treatments, failed pregnancies, and weight loss/gains resulted in the build up of gallstones, the cholecystectomy, and subsequent pancreatitis.
As I brushed my teeth, my internal humorous rant suddenly got serious. My husband and I used a donor egg to have our second son. I carried him from day five post IVF until our due date when I was induced because of pre-eclampsia. (For those new to this arena, this makes me his biological mother, but the ED (egg donor) his genetic donor or genetic mother.) In normal pregnancies, like with my first son, fetal cells work their way into the mother’s system resulting in something called micro-chimerism. The body’s reaction is minimized because half of the fetal DNA is contributed by the mother. I recalled reading about a study where researchers had found Y chromosomes in mothers’ of sons brains. I vaguely remembered that this and/or other studies had sought insight into how the mother’s immune system reacted to this semi-foreign DNA.
Light bulb moment.
I’ve been furiously researching this morning fetal micro-chimerism. In broad strokes I’ve learned:
- the immune response to fetal DNA (or natural suppression) may improve organ donor outcomes.
- remnant semi-foreign male DNA (the mom is both bio and genetic parent) results in increased auto-immune disorders in mothers than female DNA.
- remnant fetal DNA that is completely foreign (donor egg) significantly increases the risk pre-eclampsia risk in the pregnancy – [wish I’d known that. My blood pressure used to be ridiculously low to the point of hypotension before this pregnancy. After the pre-eclampsia, my blood pressure has never returned to normal.]
- one review of the literature simply stated that there is almost no research on the long term consequences to the mother’s health.
So where do I go with this theory? Will my doctors think that I’m a complete nutcase if I mention it? Would it make any difference? Should I try to track down a researcher and present myself as a guinea pig?