Pregnancy Risks

I was diagnosed in 2001 with Stage 2C melanoma (although some doctors said my case was Stage 3) and have made it 5 years! I encourage those of you who are fighting melanoma to take heart. I am getting married and would like to consider having children. My sister is a doctor and is worried that pregnancy could trigger the resurgence of the cancer. A doctor friend of hers who herself had Stage 1 melanoma was extremely concerned when she fell pregnant. I have looked on the internet for any advice/statistics on this to determine how much of a threat it could be but can't find anything too informative yet. If anyone has had advice from their doctors about this I would love to hear!

Margaret, 32

Margaret, I actually had the pregnancy talk with my onc yesterday. I was diagnosed with stage IIIa melanoma last month but prior to this my husband and I had wanted to start a family this year.  My onc told me that I need to wait at least 3 years before trying to get pregnant (1 year of which I'll be doing treatment). He told me that it's necessary to wait to be sure there are no recurrences b/c if I were to get pregnant and the melanoma came back they wouldn't be able to do a whole lot for me until the baby was born.  He was reassuring though that, once cleard, I shouldn't let melanoma stand in the way of trying to start a family.  He did say that I should be closely monitored during pregnancy though. 

I hope I was somewhat helpful even though I can't really speak from experience. I also pop on www.mpip.org message board, there's a lot of good info/experience on there as well.  Good luck.