Q&A: Is it dangerous to have a X-ray taken just before conception?

by Dr. Gerard M. DiLeo

I read everywhere that it is dangerous to have an X-Ray while pregnant, but I would like to know if it is also dangerous to have one taken just before conception.

I had an HSG done, and conceived my child a week after the X-Ray. He is now a healthy one-and-a-half-year-old. I read about all these scary things associated with X-Rays and am concerned that may son may have been damaged in some way. Can you help?

My experience is that such exposure would increase the possibility of miscarriage, but if your pregnancy "takes" O.K., it should then go on to be normal. Unfortunately, the timing of your HSG was coincidenatlly bad, but I don't know how you could have avoided it, since you were investigating your fertility anyway.

In my practice, a patient with a history like this would not worry me if she were to get past eight weeks or so without miscarrying.

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