VL monitoring in pregnancy

[mara_99]

Hello all,
I am happy to announce that I am almost 12 weeks pregnant It has been 1 year since I began taking meds (Kaletra and Combivir), I tollerate them very well; I started in July 2011, in November 2011 I was already undetectable (below 50) and in March 2012 I was undetectable again (this time below 20). Initially I was scheduled for my HIV monitoring this July, however my Dr rescheduled me for middle August (she said that - for whatever reason - they are not doing monitoring in July). In August it will be 5 months since my last check-up. I am a little worried, because I heard that HIV monitoring in pregnancy should be done every 3 months; my Dr did not seem worried though. Please share your opinion. How often did you get you VL test done in pregnancy? What do you think are the odds that my VL becomes detectable? Thank you, Maria.

[Ann]

Congratulations Mara!

Chances are that your clinic isn't doing VL monitoring in July due to summer holidays. The lab may be running on a short crew and only doing urgent lab tests.

Provided you're taking your meds every day, there's no reason to think that you'll suddenly become detectable again, so please don't panic.

When a woman is diagnosed during the first trimester (the first twelve weeks) of pregnancy, treatment is sometimes withheld until further on in the pregnancy (usually at 20 weeks). What's important is that the mother has an UD VL at the time of birth, ideally at least a few weeks before the due date. So even if you've experienced a blip, you and the baby are not in any danger.

I'd like to remind you of some links I gave you last year.

i-Base is a British website that has a lot of very good information on hiv in general as well as treatment. As the British guidelines are very close to the European guidelines, it's an excellent place for you to start.

Their Pregnancy Guide will tell you pretty much all you need to know about treating hiv in pregnancy. It is also available in several translations and they may have one in a language you feel more comfortable with, such as Romanian. (There are several hiv manuals available in Romanian, so make sure you check out the translations page I linked to above.)

Good luck with your pregnancy! I hope it all goes smoothly. And please don't worry about the slight delay in having your VL tests done. You'll be just fine - you've got plenty of time until the birth and it's your VL at birth that's the most important.

Please keep us posted.

Hugs,
Ann
xxx