Reproductive and pregnancy control in Wilson disease patients in Spain

Recommendations on pregnancy, lactation, and contraception in women with Wilson disease are briefly stated in international guidelines but are not entirely homogeneous. Data regarding the management of these special events among patients with Wilson disease in Spain are lacking. We used the Wilson Registry platform of the Spanish Association for the Study of the Liver to question patients on their reproductive and gestational lives.

This was a multicentre ambispective study including adult women with Wilson disease in the Spanish Wilson Registry interviewed about their contraception, childbearing, pregnancy, and lactation experiences. Clinical and analytical data were extracted from the registry.

The study included 92 women from 17 centres in Spain. Most (63%) reported having a previous pregnancy history. The rate of spontaneous miscarriages was 21.6%, mainly occurring in the first trimester and up to one third among undiagnosed patients. Most pregnant women received chelator therapy during pregnancy, but dose reduction was recommended in less than 10%. After delivery, artificial lactation predominated (60.3%) and its use was mainly based on physician's recommendations (68%). Up to 40% of the women included reported some concerns about their reproductive lives, mainly related to the potential drug toxicity to their children. Most of the patients considered the information given by specialists to be sufficient.

Gestational management among women with Wilson disease in Spain was found to be highly heterogeneous and frequently different from what is described in international guidelines. Education on rare liver diseases should be a priority for scientific societies in order to homogenize patient follow-up and recommendations.