The need for a disease-specific prospective pregnancy registry for multiple sclerosis (MS)

• Epidemiological studies are scarce regarding pregnancy outcome among patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).
• Current pregnancy registries conducted by the manufactures of disease modifying therapies (DMTs) are limited by many factors.
• Only one disease-specific MS pregnancy registry exists in Germany.
• A general framework to initiate a North American Multiple Sclerosis Prospective Pregnancy Registry is proposed.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most commonly acquired neurological disorder affecting young adults of reproductive age with an approximately 3:1 female to male ratio. Although pregnancy is not contraindicated in MS, data are limited regarding pregnancy outcome among MS patients, and the safety or risk to the fetus associated with most maternal MS treatments, such as disease modifying therapies (DMTs), during pregnancy is unknown. We review available epidemiological and registry data on MS and pregnancy and discuss the need to initiate a North American Multiple Sclerosis Pregnancy Registry that will prospectively identify pregnancies in women with MS, obtain information on the disease, and its treatment during gestation and lactation and follow the children to determine their health status.