Spontaneous pregnancies in female survivors of childhood allogeneic haemopoietic stem cell transplant for haematological malignancies

• Published in: Clinical endocrinology (Oxford) Vol. 93; no. 4; pp. 466 - 472
• Main Authors: Lee, Samantha Lai‐Ka, Tiedemann, Karin, Zacharin, Margaret
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-10-2020
• Subjects: allogeneic HSCT; Births; Blood cancer; Chemotherapy; childhood; Children; Contraception; Cyclophosphamide; Female circumcision; Hematology; Hematopoietic stem cells; live births; Medical records; Pregnancy; Radiation; Reproductive status; Sexual behavior; Skull; spontaneous pregnancy; Stem cell transplantation; Stem cells; childhood; live births; spontaneous pregnancy; allogeneic HSCT
• ISSN: 0300-0664; 1365-2265
• DOI: 10.1111/cen.14266

Objective
Spontaneous pregnancies and live births are rarely reported after haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). We report spontaneous pregnancy outcomes of sexually active female survivors of childhood allogeneic HSCT, to provide more data for future counselling.
Design, Patients and Measurements
Retrospective review of all female survivors of childhood haematological malignancies who had allogeneic HSCT at the Royal Children Hospital between 1985 and 2011. Data were retrieved from medical records, updated from treating haematologist or endocrinologist, and were cross‐referenced with self‐reported questionnaires. Female survivors who were sexually inactive were excluded from analysis.
Results
Six of 37 (16.2%) female survivors reported spontaneous pregnancies resulting in 8 live births. Amongst 22 women who received total body irradiation (n = 21) ± cranial irradiation or isolated cranial irradiation (n = 1), and high‐dose cyclophosphamide, three reported pregnancy resulting in live births (14%), whilst three of 15 women who received chemotherapy alone had pregnancy with live births (20%).
Conclusions
Our current finding, albeit a small sample size, reinforces the importance of counselling female survivors of HSCT about the possibility of spontaneous pregnancy occurring despite documented ovarian failure and for need of contraception to avoid unplanned pregnancy.