Foot AVM & Pregnancy

Hi im new here so i dont really know how to use this but i have left foot avm and i found out after my 3rd child. It was painful 2 walk on and i never got treated 4 it but i wanted 2 know will it be dangerous 2 have anuther baby with a avm

Tan,

Welcome to the site! I’ve moved your question to your own topic, so I hope people will see it clearly.

I know that Natalie89 and chingona have been talking recently about pregnancy and having an AVM. See their thread here:

http://www.avmsurvivors.org/t/awaiting-surgery/19240

The obvious threat from an AVM is that increased blood pressure leads to a bleed. Obviously, if your AVM is in your head, that runs a risk of stroke. Equally obviously, if your AVM is in or near your uterus, there is a risk of bleed and/or poor blood supply to a baby but with it being in your foot, I’m not sure whether there are other complications.

I hope you can find some other AVMers here who can help. Very best wishes,

Richard

Hi Tan,
Extremity AVMs are quite different with pregnancy than brain AVMs. There is an increased risk of a bleed especially in a lower extremity. I have a leg VM and had 2 successful pregnancies. What I noticed was and increase in growth and swelling during both pregnancies. Once blood volume decreased the swelling went down but as it had grown a bit larger it needed to be treated. Progesterone is known to make AVMs get larger so just be aware. I would treat it before becoming pregnant and ask the doctor to be a little more aggressive if possible. Generally it is not good to go in surgery during pregnancy especially since the preferred treatment is alcohol embolization which can impact the baby. Hope that helps.

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Hi rachel i have been 2 liverpool for my avm and they sed it was almost impossible 2 treat i am soo worried as 2 whats going to happen with my foot. The doctor only said if i was to get pregnant again it would only get worse but my question is if i have had 3 kids surely it must be ok to have another 1 and i only had an angio 2 years ago

Each person with AVM is different. Depending on how close the surface your AVM is and what arteries are involved. If you don’t trust the doctor you saw get another opinion. I always suggest an interventional radiologist as opposed to a vascular surgeon. They tend to be more familiar with AVM. When I check the society for interventional radiology it only list one person for AVM Mohamed S. Hamady at St. Mary’s London. AVM will grow with each pregnancy if it is not treated. Please be careful. A bleed could be very dangerous for a baby.

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I really dont know how to get hold of another doctor and i am walkin fine do get pains abit now and then but my veins did go big around the foot with my last pregnancy the doctor just said that i dont have the capillars to shrink the blood and that if i can still walk around and run after my kids he suggests not to get it treated

And i have been given a compression stocking to wear which i am soo lazy with but that does help ease the pain in my leg and foot

I’d talk to your GP about a referral to an interventional radiologist and also about whether you should have that conversation before trying for another child. I’d hope they could get that done as an outpatient appointment for you.

I’m sure the compression stocking will be important!

Yh i suppose i will have to go back to my gp about this but my doctor says this is very rare and that scares me abit i dont know why coz not that many people have this illness he said.

Tan

An AVM is a rare condition but the UK has an excellent health care system which, since you’ve already got a diagnosis, means the right doctors can give good advice to you. I think the one of the chief problems of rare diseases is that if you have one, a doctor who is trying to diagnose your condition will not often know of or think of the right condition. Thus, rare diseases take much longer to diagnose; more common ailments being taken as the hypothesis more easily, readily, and disproved.

I’m sure if your GP should refer you to a consultant interventional radiologist, you would get a good opinion.

Richard

Thanku for replying and helping me out its just been really stressfull not knwing how im meant to get treated or if i should even get treated because im still getting on with my nornal daily routine. I guess im just scared of surgeries and ops but talkin about it has helped me feel abit better so thanku for replying

I think we’re all afraid of surgery… it’s not a good place to be… but actually, there are a lot of people here who’ve been through surgeries and come out the other side to good results.

I am a bit of a wuss where surgery is concerned but I had an embolisation on my brain AVM in April last year and actually, it was fine. I don’t have myself down as brave at all but it was fine. Honestly.

I think for an extremity AVM, alcohol embolisation is often recommended (though I’m not sure it is available as a treatment in the UK) and I think that is quite uncomfortable… more so than my PHIL embo… but you can do it if you have to. I did mine. You could get through yours.

Meanwhile, take it steady.

Best wishes

Richard

Has your avm gone now

I don’t know. My doctor was convinced in May that it was fixed 100% but it has taken me a long time to feel back to normal again. In the meanwhile, I became quite dizzy again in November and didn’t feel I was still getting better… I felt I had slipped back a bit. I feel better than November today but I have quite a bit of tinnitus going on, a loud pulse in my ear at night and a feeling of the pulse on the left side, where my embolisation was on the right. I’ve got some other effects as well. So, I don’t know whether it just takes a looooong time to get better or I’m not quite fixed. I’m seeing the neuro in March to ask.

However, am I better off than I was this time last year? Yes, definitely. If I hadn’t had the op, do I think I’d be about the same now? No, I’m sure I was degrading at an alarming rate by the time I got my op. So I’m glad it was done. I’m just ambitious to be near 100% fixed and get on with life as normal.

From what Rachel says, I do think you should pay attention to yours and look after it as well as you can. You don’t want to lose a foot, do you?

Wishing you the best,

Richard

Omg no i would be devastated to lose my foot but like i said the doctor i went to said just dont treat it if ur still able to walk about. The way u said u can hear a pulse i can feel that too in my foot but after my angio was dun thru my pelvis my whole leg hurts too. The only way i could lose my foot is if i went thru surgery and it didnt work right coz all i can do now is wear a compression stocking the way to describe my foot is its changed colour its more veiny and warmer then other 1