How does pregnancy affect the mother when she has Alopecia Areata?

I was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata about a year and a half ago. It is mostly under control. I regrew all the hair after my first episode. I didn't have another episode until a few months ago and it happened after a very stressful event in my family. The hair is now regrowing again. I've only had two episodes. I have two kids ages 12 and 7. I am thinking about having another child and wonder if my Alopecia Areata will be worse, the same or completely unaffected by pregnancy?

How does pregnancy affect the mother when she has Alopecia Areata?

I have had alopecia for 23 years (i am now 28 years old), in all its forms, but have leveled out at alopecia totalis for the last 15 years or so of it. (just loss of hair on scalp)

While i was pregnant with my twins (who have no sign of alopecia) my condition did not change, but *after* i had them, with hormones and body trying to regulate themselves to pre-pregnancy levels, for the first time since i was in 4th grade, I lost my eyelashes and eyebrows. (i'd forgotten how different my face looked without them!)

I hadn't gone to the doctor for my alopecia since i was in gradeschool, but decided to go this time. He gave me prednisone (sp?) a type of steriod commonly used to treat alopecia and I hated it.

The eyelashes and eyebrows grew back within a couple weeks. I think they would have done so with or without the sterioid.

So to make a long, rambling story short...there were some short term effects, but everything went back to normal (normal for me, anyway) after a couple weeks. I think is just took some time for my body to adjust to not being pregnant anymore.

Everyone reacts differently to different things, and alopecia is a completely unpredictable disease. It may not change at all, or may even get better. This was just my experience.