Group B Streptococcus

The Fertility Solution Discussion Board: Infections: Group B Streptococcus

Fernanda Erlanger (erlanger)

Friday, September 27, 2002 - 01:25 pm Click here to edit this post
FC Erlanger September 27, 2002


I never heard of Group B Strep until I couldn't get pregnant. Now I feel like the Group B Strep Poster Girl. Although most doctors don't make a connection between Group B Strep and infertility, miscarriage or even preterm birth; my unfortunate experience tied Group B Strep to all three. Doctors often remind me that there is still little clinical research to substantiate that, but I have found my lay experience to be shared by many other couples.

In 1997, at the age of 32, I started trying to get pregnant. My husband and I armed with our Basil thermometer, charts and later, ovulation kits, wandered aimlessly down the fertility road wondering, after several unsuccessful months, why it was taking so long. After 8 months and much badgering, my gynecologist agreed to do some intrauterine inseminations in his office (with no drug stimulation). After four unsuccessful attempts, he finally relented and shipped me off to a fertility expert.

There, walking into the packed waiting rooms filled with stressed out women checking their watches and cell phones, I couldn't help but flash to the anxious Montana cows we visited last summer who mooed relentlessly as they were corralled into the insemination tanks dreading their turn with gloved Rancher Joe.

If I had been a cow, I literally would have been dead meat, because after seven inseminations and more injections than I care to remember, I was nowhere. Diagnosed with undiagnosed infertility;, I was encouraged to move on to invitro. But even my invitro experience was a bit pathetic. My husband's sperm had been tested and was willing and able to fertilize a mouse's egg, but clearly wanted no part of my egg. After three days, my four eggs, which I had painstakingly grown, withered away and died in a hospital Petri dish unattended by my husband's sperm. Talk about utter rejection. I joke now, but it was sad.

Three months later in the summer of 1998, after taking one long European vacation, I came home to discover that I was pregnant. It had happened the old fashion way. To say we were thrilled was an understatement. At six weeks, we looked with excitement as our little fava bead-shaped embryo's heart beat strongly. At my 8 and a half week visit, I laid down with great anticipation, onto to hear the words all pregnant mothers dread; I can't find a heartbeat. Three days later, I ended up miscarrying. At this point, I was desperate and clung to the hope that a new doctor in New York who had helped some of my east cost friends get pregnancy could help me. His name was Dr. Attila Toth.

Dr. Toth believed that bacteria and antibodies played a role in infertility. After examining my husband and myself, Dr. Toth found that my anaerobic culture revealed a heavy growth of Lactobacillus acidophilus. The aerobic culture showed a heavy growth of Gardnerella vaginalis. My husband on the other hand had Gemella morbillorum and Streptococcus constellatus, the anaerobic variant of Group B Strep. He prescribed Doxycycline and Augmentin. With four weeks, I was pregnant.

Dr. Toth's greatest concern was that I got pregnant before all the bacteria had been cleaned out and that I might miscarry (my husband and I were suppose to use a condom throughout our treatment, but we cheated one fateful night). He thus continued oral antibiotic treatment for six weeks. It was a fairly normal pregnancy until 24 and a half weeks. In June of 2000, on my way to catch a flight to London from LA, I swung by my ob's office because I was feeling a lot of lower pressure. Within minutes of examining me, my doctor called an ambulance. I was 4 cm dilated and my daughter's foot was in the vaginal canal. Our daughter died after four days in the NICU. Going forward wasn't easy. Although most disagreed, Dr. Toth felt that Group B Strep had been the cause of my pre-term birth. I was diagnosed with an incompetent cervix.

In October of the same year, my husband and I visited Dr. Toth again for another round of tests before we started trying to conceive yet again. This time he discovered that my endometrial biopsy was positive for a very heavy growth of Streptococcus constellatus, the anaerobic variant of Group B Streptococcus. In addition, Peptostreptococcus prevotii and Propionibacterium acnes, two additional anaerobic bacteria were recovered. A heavy growth of Group B Streptococcus, an aerobic bacterium, was isolated from the cervical area. My husband's culture revealed a heavy growth of Gemella morbillorum. This time we went on 10 days of intravenous Ampicillin, pre and post conception. With two months, we were pregnant. Even my fertility doctor was now becoming a believer.

After a cerclage, six months of bed rest and several rounds of Penicillin VK to combat the chronic Group B Strep infections throughout my entire pregnancy, I now have a healthy and beautiful baby girl. It wouldn't have happened without the intensive care and monitoring by Dr. Calvin Hobel, Dr. Randy Harris and advice from Dr. James McGregor. I hope to get pregnant again next year and will follow the same protocol.

As a side note, I told a friend of mine about Dr. Toth's philosophy. She had just taken her veterinary certification exam. She commented; Well, it makes perfect sense to me. I had to examine a mare today and discover why she was infertile. The right answer was a low-grade bacterial infection. If it plays a role in animals than why not humans? Good Question.


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