Rituxin in two days...scared....want more children

Hi Everyone!

I havew had ITP for 16 yrs now. I was in remission for most of those yrs. For the last year and a half I have been up and down with my counts and in & out of the hospital.
I am on Nplate and steriods and get IV's og Gamma often. When my counts are really low I am in the hospital. Last July my spleen was removed.
After seeing a specialist in the city, he let me know that getting pregnant on NPlate could be harmful to the fetus (we have been struggling w/ secondary infertility for 3 years). After hearing that I realized I need to get off the NPlate immediately!
My next option in Rituxin. He feels I am a good candidate because I was in remission for so many years after my first diagnoses.
Has anyone out there done a round of rituxin and then gotten pregnant? I know the website says to wait 1 year, my dr said I can try again after 4 months. I am wondering if he said that because my treatment will not be as long as other treatments given.
Any opinions out there? I am freaking out, almost ready to cancel, but I feel as if I do not have any other options!

Jessica

Hi Jessica--

I've been around this site awhile--there is a section for questions specifically related to pregnancy, but if there aren't any recent posts or replies to a post from you on that topic, I believe there were two ladies on the old forum you could check. This site switched to a different what?-format?-in June or so, but you can still read the old posts. Maybe Sandi can help locate these? Long story short, I think they did just fine...Ann, Caitlin's Mom

OK, so it was Feb. when they made the switch. Hope these take you to the old discussions! Shoot, now they're not blue and underlined! But these are the topics to put in a search once you get there...

ITP Discussion Forum - when to get pregnant

ITP Discussion Forum - Trying to convince my fiance

ITP Discussion Forum - Pregnancy decision

Ann, Caitlin's Mom

thank you for getting back to me.
I will be checking them out.

My thought is that since they don't even really know the long term side effects of Rituxan on adults who use it, how can they possibly know the long term effects on a baby?

I'd do your research on that one.

Agreed Sandi. Are there any studies in the works to help determine effects on the reproductive system (both male and female)? When I asked my hematologist specifically about Rituxin (btw, I'm 34 y/o male) she told me to wait 3 months before trying to add to our family, and that there's absolutely no information on how it affects a woman's reproductive system. My doc told me to wait for 3 months only to give the drug a chance to exit my system...no forseeable problems with reproductive health; the immune system just needs to behave itself.

Chris