"Provided these results are confirmed this study is important for several reasons. Firstly, it is telling us something about the immunology of MS; hormones that are used for fertility treatment appear to exacerbate MS. Secondly, and more importantly, MSers who are having fertility treatment need to know that there is a potential risk that the treatment will exacerbate their MS, i.e. trigger relapses. I have personal experience of this; two MSers under my care who have had fertility treatment had relapses after IVF. My German colleagues are now putting MSers who want to fall pregnant or want to have IVF on glatiramer acetate to counteract this. The latter is based on the emerging data, from several MS registers, that suggests glatiramer acetate is safe in pregnancy."