Outcomes of pregnancy in Egyptian women with multiple sclerosis in the new treatment era: a multi-center retrospective observational study

Background Pregnancy is a recent growing issue in multiple sclerosis (MS) and the update in the diagnostic criteria of MS and introduction of many disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) may cause changes in the relationship between MS, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. This study aimed to investigate the effect of pregnancy and breastfeeding on MS and vice versa. A retrospective observational study was conducted to include MS women with a history of at least one pregnancy during the last 7 years. Data were collected from the archived files in addition to a self-administrating questionnaire. The annualized relapsing rate (ARR) was calculated before, during, and after pregnancy. Results We included 116 successful pregnancies from 93 MS women with mean age 32.74 ± 5.12 years. Interferon-beta was the commonly used DMT during and after pregnancy. Despite the ARR during the two years preceding the conception was 0.36 (95% CI 0.32–0.41), this rate was significantly decreased during first, second, and third trimester (0.07; 95% CI 0.04–0.15, 0.10; 95% CI 0.03–0.17, and 0.15; 95% CI 0.08–0.24, respectively; P -value