My sister just told me she's pregnant

I've just found out my sis is expecting her 1st baby.

It's a bit of a tense time for her at mo - as she has quite severe SLE (Lupus)
The baby is planned - but she became pregnant earlier than expected - was supposed to be off her immune supressants for 6 weeks before concieving - and it was only 4weeks.
But she has her 12 week scan next week which should hopefully put her mind at rest.

Midwife has already asked about any PE history in the family - and she did mention me, so im glad its been raised with her already (I didn't want to have to add more worries to her as she's already got enough going on)

What actually are the risks of it running in families?

Because of the lupus and pregnancy - she's already been prescribed aspirin & clexane injections.

I'm hoping with her regular consultant led care - and 4 weekly scans from 20 weeks, then that will help pick up any problems for her.

Fingers, toes and everything crossed for her really.

Hi

Welcome to the site,

You are absolutley correct that Pe can run in families. Its well documented that it can run along the maternal side but less well known is the increasing evidence which says it can also run down the paternal line too.

Lupus and other auto-immune conditions are very closely linked with PE. The current data says that if you have Lupus or APLS (anti-phospho-lipid syndrome) you are about 7 times more likely to get PE. So Im really glad to hear your sister has already been started on aspirin & clexane.

What we dont know is the 'accumulative' effect of the risks. So a strong family history would give you an increased risk of about 1 in 10 but we dont know (although we think it unlikely) that this would then be added to the 7 times increase because of APLS, giving an overall risk of 17 times more likely to get PE.

Neither does the increased risk give any clues in to the severity or gestation that one might actually get PE.
This is what is so hard about diagnosing PE - it can be so insdiscriminate.

I hope this helps, but do let us know if we can offer you further information.
With best wishes
Liz