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Pregnancy, miscarriage, and melanoma – Long post

Forums General Melanoma Community Pregnancy, miscarriage, and melanoma – Long post

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    SarahS
    Participant

      Hi everyone,

      Hi everyone,

      Haven't posted in a long time (maybe 3 years ago or so), but I occasionally pop on to see how everyone is doing. Well I'm here today b/c I have a few questions. A little background info on me: I was diagnosed in 2003 with stage 1 mel on my back, then stage 0 (thin mel) on my left arm in 2005, then in 2006 I was diagnosed with stage 3a mel on the back of my right leg with micromets to 1 node in right groin. I had all the lypmh nodes removed in my right groin, then started interferon in Feb. of 2007, which I ended in Oct. 2007 b/c of side effects and depression. I've been cancer-free since.

      Fast forward 3 years and I received the go-ahead from my oncologist to start trying to have a baby (I'm 29 yrs old, almost 30). I got pregnant pretty quickly in Feb. 2011, but had a missed miscarriage in April — no heartbeat found at my 12 week ultrasound (baby measured around around 7 weeks). I had a d&c several days later. Now skip ahead to September and I found out I was pregnant again. At 7 weeks, we had an ultrasound and found a strong heartbeat (156bpm). We were really excited, the doc said after you see a heartbeat the risk of miscarriage goes down to 5%. Well a few days later, I had a bit of spotting and they had me come in for another ultrasound; this time the heart rate had dropped significantly (down to 100bpm), and there was little growth. This was early last week. On Monday, I had another ultrasound to confirm the heart had stopped, which it did, and I was scheduled for a d&c, which happened yesterday – I was almost 9 weeks. The doc will be doing some testing at 6 weeks post-miscarriage to see if I have a blood clotting disorder, and if I do, it would prevent the placenta and baby from developing properly. Hopefully I'll have some answers in a couple of months.

      So here are my questions:

       – Before I had the interferon, I was told it would probably not interfere with fertility, but of course I have to wonder… have any of you had problems with miscarriage after interferon?

       – I'm also wondering if all these ups and downs with my hormones (with the last 2 pregnancies over the last 9 months) could somehow affect my health negatively at some point, and possibly cause me recur or get a new primary? I have many moles, so I see a derm and oncologist every 3-4 months. I seem to develop new moles all the time. Guess I'm worried that all the ups and downs with my hormones could possibly make my moles change more rapidly. Also, at some point in the last year, I developed a mole inside my eyeball, discovered at my last eye appointment a couple months ago. No idea when it actually developed, I just know it happened in the last year. The eye doc said it's fairly common, about 10% of the population have a mole or "freckle" in their eye, but this really freaks me out, my great-grandfather died from melanoma in his eye.

       – Finally, if they do find I have a blood clotting issue, they'll recommend a baby aspirin every day and they'll also prescribe Lovenox, an anticoagulant, which would be an injection I'd take each day starting when I get pregnant again. So, my question and I hate to think about the worse case scenario, BUT worst case scenario, I develop mel while pregnant, and if my blood is thinner, could the cancer travel around faster? I just have no idea.

      My derm and oncologist have both said in the past that pregnancy can change moles, but there's no definitive link between pregnancy and melanoma. Tomorrow I have my regular appt with my oncologist and will ask him all my questions, but I'm just wondering if any of you have any experiences with pregnancy, miscarriage, and melanoma.

      My husband and I are talking about trying one, maybe two, more times and if it doesn't happen, or there's a chance that my health could be negatively affected by all these pregnancies/miscarriages, then we'll seriously look into adoption.

      Thank you in advance for any advice and/or experiences you can share!

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