Looking back I know I had symptoms during my first pregnancy. 9 months later 2nd pregnancy. I did not respond to the anesthesia for my first. The nurse administering the med was almost in shock. Anyway, after both babies I had mild symptoms for a few years and then weakness/muscle and fatigue increased over a period of 19 years. I was dx a year ago.

I had severe muscle cramps in my legs s a child and wondered if that could have been MG.

MG is a very difficult disease to figure out. I keep trying, although, some days I just say "it is what it is "

Best wishes! Barbel

In retrospect I showed symptoms of MG and the currently undiagnosed illness attacking my CNS during my last pregnancy, which means roughly ten years ago. I was forced in to the doctor in summer of 2012, though I should have sought help in 2010. I rapidly declined this 10th year even with large doses of steroids and Imuran and do not feel hopeful about remission, spontaneous or medically induced. Some of the seronegatives are, in my opinion, allowed to progress because doctors are too afraid to treat aggressively. When I look back, I wish I had not been allowed to become so sick before large doses of steroids were tried. Honestly, I would never rely only on Mestinon because there is some research out there showing that low doses of steroids slow progression. I know some hate steroids, and so do I. Eating, breathing, swallowing, and seeing at work are pretty awesome though. :)

I think that I began having mild symptoms nearly a year before I was diagnosed. I had what I thought was eyestrain, then I had a very severe and mysterious stomach illness, and then no symptoms for a couple of months. Then they returned: a slight feeling of slowness in the eye muscles, acid reflux and trouble with my esophagus, and lack of strength in my hands when they would get cold. And it was harder for me to train for my last marathon, and during the race I had terrible muscle cramps in my legs for the last 8 miles, which never happened before. These symptoms were all slight enough for the next 6 months or so that I thought it was nothing, just stress or lack of sleep. Then, I started having increasing trouble with my mouth, speaking and chewing and swallowing. And I think I was having trouble breathing too but didn't notice or thought it was stress. From the time my bulbar symptoms first appeared, they gradually increased in severity for about three months until it was happening more than once a day for several minutes, enough that I wasn't getting enough to eat and it was difficult to understand my speech, and then I was diagnosed. And my symptoms progressed to general (arm, leg and core) weakness the day after I started prednisone. I had pretty severe general weakness for about eight months before improving (I had a thymoma).

I agree that it seems like a low dose of steroids might help keep the disease from progressing; ask your doctor about it. I'm not sure whether there are people who had mild symptoms for years and then suddenly progressed. I know pregnancy does have an effect on people's symptoms so that's definitely something to consider. Be well!
G

I've been thinking about this lately, and about the fact that so much of what I dealt with in early life was chalked up to fibromyalgia when I think I was probably dealing with early MG symptoms for a long time. I had issues with falling, weakness, with severe muscle cramps, and breathing all since I was a teenager, and chronic pain since I was an even younger kid. All the meds they threw at me for fibromyalgia did nothing for me, so I've started to think that it was MG all along. I wasn't diagnosed until just a couple of years ago.

FOR ME, LOOKING BACK AS I WAS WORKING AS A YOUTH DIRECTOR IN CHURCH. ( KEEPING UP WITH TEENAGERS, WHICH I HAD NO TROUBLE DOING) I REMEMBER FEELING TIRED AT TIMES, I JUST THOUGHT I WAS JUST GETTING OLDER...LOL THAT HAS TO BEEN ABOUT 7 YEARS AGO. THEN I HAD A STENT PUT IN, THAT DIDNT HELP MY TIREDNESS AT ALL. SO I DECIDED TO RETIRE WORKING WITH KIDS. THEN ABOUT 4.5 YEARS AGO I SUFFERED A HEART ATTACK WITH 3 MORE STENTS PUT IN, BUT IT WASN'T UNTIL ABOUT 2 YEARS AGO I WAS DIAGNOSED WITH MG. SO I GUESS I WENT A LONG TIME WITH JUST MILD SYMPTOMS, MAYBE AFTER THE HEART ATTACK WAS WHEN THE MG REALLY STARTED TO KICK IN HARD. I DO KNOW I WENT ABOUT 6- 12 MONTHS LIVING AND WORKING WITH VERY BAD SYMPTOMS OF MG BEFORE I WAS DIAGNOSED. WISH I WOULD OF FOUND IT EARLIER, BUT SO MANY DRS. HAVENT GOT A CLUE ABOUT MG. I HAD 5 IVIGS ABOUT 3 MONTHS AGO IT TOOK ABOUT A MONTH FOR IT TO HELP SOME, IT IS STARTING TO WEAR OFF, IM GETTING THOSE SAME SYMPTOMS BACK AGAIN...DANG IT. SO I GUESS I CAN LOOK BACK AND SEE THAT I HAD THE MG SYMPTOMS LONGER THAN WHAT I THOUGHT.... BUT MY SYMPTOMS STARTED MILDLY AT THE BEGINNING AND SLOWLY PROGRESSED TO BE REALLY NASTY. I WISH YOU THE BEST

TERRY

I love children more than anyone. My concern would be the exhaustion that comes along with young children and wether or not you could get worse. That would be my only concern. If you can get extra help maybe all would be great.
Ann

I had difficulty lifting my arms above my shoulders for more than a minute it seemed probably eleven years ago. Also had problems hanging up washing but thought this was due to RSI and carpal tunnel. Nothing major until I had five radioactive treatments for my Thyroid eight years ago and boy oh boy did MG raise its ugly head. No energy, could not stay awake, couldn't walk more than six steps without having to rest, etc. Had Thymus removed and after a lengthy recovery period I slowly improved.

In reference to having another baby I would try and get as much help as you could to help you manage.

Hi,
I just gave birth to my third son in August. I'm 34. My oldest is 8. I won't lie, compared to my other two pregnancies, I was a lot more tired. No major MG complications during pregnancy. I also have Sjogren's Syndrome. Before we tried for this baby, I talked to all my doctors and got the ok. I knew that I'd be designated high risk and would have a lot more than normal appointments with my obgyn and perinatologist.
By the way, my symptoms began after the birth of my second son in 2008. I wasn't diagnosed officially with MG until October 2012.
I was on a few meds including mestinon during this pregnancy and all were approved by my doctors.

With MG, the two biggest issues to be concerned with beyond an exacerbation (not likely as pregnancy is a natural immune suppressor) were preeclampsia and the baby being born with transient MG.

Preeclampsia is a big deal with MG because the medicine of choice used to prevent seizures that can occur when your bp is highly elevated is magnesium sulfate, which is completely contraindicated for those with MG. If your bp spikes dangerously and you're spilling protein (which is a common but dangerous thing to have happen in pregnancy) you have to have a doctor who can treat you without magnesium. Many doctors don't have experience in using older methods of treating preeclampsia since magnesium sulfate is so effective.
My bp skyrocketed after delivery. I couldn't use mag sulfate so my obgyn got creative with a variety of anti-hypertensive meds which normalized me over several weeks.

Occasionally, babies born to moms with MG are born floppy and need time in the NICU for the MG to go away. Luckily, we didn't have this issue and baby boy was fine.

Having another child, even in the best of health is a big decision. Being ill, only you know if you are capable of going through another baby's sleepless nights while taking care of your other children, or if your body is capable of going through the trauma :) of pregnancy and giving birth.
Personally, I wouldn't change a thing. I love being a mom and am so grateful to do this again. I'm exclusively breastfeeding too. Heck, sometimes my sleep deprived brain thinks I'd like to have another some day.
I'm certainly not as spry as I was when I had my first baby but I am managing just fine taking care of my boys.
Good luck in whatever you decide. :)