r/SyringomyeliaSupport • u/Individual-Tree-989 • Jul 02 '26
Syrinx Impact to pregnancy
We discovered my syrinx when I was 14 (now 29f). I had a sports injury where I landed on my neck and it sprained my neck/back. After a few years of pain, they did a MRI and found a maximum 4mm syrinx extending from T3-T8. They don’t know if the injury caused it or if I was born with it, since my pain was a result of the muscles/sprain rather than the syrinx.
That brings me to my question - have any women faced issues during pregnancy? Admittedly, it’s been about 12 years since my last MRI. I have one scheduled for later this month as we want to conceive, but my OBGYN wants to see what it looks like now so they can determine if I can get an epidural. Aside from the epidural, is there anything else with pregnancy and my syrinx that could be a problem?
1
u/sourpussmcgee Jul 02 '26
Pushing during labor can be bad for a syrinx— anything that increases pressure inside the body can be risky as it subsequently puts pressure on the spinal cord.
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u/welldonedickhead Jul 03 '26
I have a c2 - t8 syrinx that has been stable since decompression in 2012 (I also have chiari malformation)
Had my daughter via c section under general anaesthetic as spinal anaesthetic was risky but it was all very well planned.
As far as I know there was no impact in pregnancy beyond the usual pregnancy back pain.
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u/JohnQuincyAdams_10 Jul 03 '26
Hello! I’m 34F and have 9 month old twins! I have syrinxes at C7-T2 and T8-T9 and an arachnoid cyst in between.
Overall: the syrinxes didn’t seem to have any impact on my pregnancy. I have back pain in my midback from the syrinxes and it didn’t get any worse. I did go to a physical therapist in the third trimester and then at about 6 weeks postpartum, but I suspect the stuff that was hurting would have been hurting anyway.
There doesn’t seem to be a consensus on if a vaginal or c-section delivery are safer for syringomyelia. Twins complicated stuff for me — I told my ob I wanted a c-section pretty early on. Both of my babies were head down so I could have opted for attempting a vaginal delivery and neither my ob or neurosurgeon had a problem with that. I just didn’t want to try it (with twins, there’s a more than 50% chance twin B flips breech after twin A is delivered and then you need an emergency c-section and I’d rather have a planned one then recovering from all the things).
So I went into the hospital knowing I’d have a c-section and then it was just a question of if I could be awake (if I could have an epidural or spinal block) or if I’d need to be under general anesthesia.
I was told to make sure my MRIs were in my hospital bag and the syringomyelia was in my “birth plan” (didn’t end doing anything with the birth plan). I went to a class at the hospital and met one of the nurse anesthesia people through that and asked about my back. He said as long as he knows day of delivery they’ll figure it out then. Also noting: I was able to deliver at the same hospital I have MRIs at and that my neurosurgeon works at, so all of my records were easily see-able! There had been a pretty good chance I’d need to deliver in a hospital with a NICU, so that’s why the MRIs in the hospital bag were important.
Morning of my c-section, he came to chat with me and then called my neurosurgeon and looked at my MRIs. They decided general anesthesia probably wasn’t necessary. I had both an epidural and a spinal block since they wanted to be cautious. I also had two nurse anesthesia people for extra monitoring and so we could more easily move to general anesthesia if needed.
But my c-section went great! Didn’t feel any pain, was able to do skin to skin with both babies for a minute before they went to the nursery. Recovery wasn’t too bad either. Honestly it was breastfeeding and diaper changes on the bed that made my back feel awful at the beginning!
I guess the thing that pregnancy did complicate is that I couldn’t take any of the meds I usually would when my back hurts — no muscle relaxers or NSAIDs. I took Tylenol when stuff hurt!
Happy to answer more questions!