"It felt like a life-or-death choice”: Pregnancy with Long COVID has many unknowns

The Sick Times

“It felt like a life-or-death choice”: Pregnancy with Long COVID has many unknowns

Written by: Maddi Dellplain - March 24, 2026

When couples decide to have a child, conversations around birth plans, baby names, and day care are top of mind. But for those living with Long COVID, the concerns are often far graver.

“It felt like a life-or-death choice,” said Massachusetts resident Lauren Nichols. “The conversations with my husband were, ‘Would you be able to take care of this child on your own if I were to not make it through pregnancy?’”

Nichols contracted COVID-19 in March 2020, less than a month after she went off birth control with the intention of starting a family. That, however, was put on hold, as, over the next 10 months, Nichols developed postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), walking pneumonia, chronic migraine, and Epstein-Barr virus reactivation resulting in multiple bouts of eye shingles; suffered a stroke; and received a diagnosis for hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) — all which she believes were either exacerbated or instigated by her SARS-CoV-2 infection. 

After some success with low-dose naltrexone, Nichols’s condition stabilized enough to begin in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. In 2023, she gave birth to a baby boy.

While having a child did not prove to be the fatal endeavor she had feared, Nichols’s journey was riddled with risks, both known and unknown. 

Her experience with IVF, pregnancy, delivery, and parenthood even led to some surprising improvements in her symptoms for a time. But especially among people with Long COVID and related diseases, every person — and every pregnancy — is different. 

While parents with Long COVID may encounter more difficulties conceiving, some may actually find their symptoms abate throughout pregnancy, sometimes leading to longer-term improvements postpartum. Still, others have reported a rapid decline in health.

The decision to have a child can carry with it the burden of financial stress. Kids are expensive, and for many with Long COVID, a reduced ability to earn a living, housing precarity, insufficient disability benefits, and few social safety nets have left many unable to support themselves, let alone children. For those with Long COVID who are able to work, the potential drains of pregnancy and child-rearing on their ability to remain in the workforce likewise weigh heavily. Financial barriers to parenthood can be even higher for racialized, queer and trans people living with Long COVID.

Six years after the start of the pandemic, there are few clear answers for would-be parents with Long COVID. But amid the layers of uncertainty, there is some guidance that can be gleaned from ME, and potentially valuable research on the way.

https://thesicktimes.org/2026/03/24/it-felt-like-a-life-or-death-choice…