Hello Ryanm:
Answers to questions are for information only and should in no way imply diagnosis or treatment. As you might imagine, we have had similar questions many times before and here is a very good answer from Martin Quigley, MD, one of our consultants on Diving Medicine Online.
"If you are planning a perfect holiday for diving, and you really want to try and conceive on your holiday, what do you do about the possibility of damaging the embryo?
Bottom line - you should probably go ahead and completely enjoy your dive trip. The reasons are multiple. First, a normal couple, actively trying to achieve a pregnancy, actually is successful only once in three or four months of trying to conceive - so the odds are that you won't get pregnant on this trip (although it's certainly not unlikely).
Second, the embryo does not actually attach to the wall of the uterus for about seven days, receiving its nourishment from fluids secreted by the Fallopian tube and uterus. Even though attachment to the wall of the uterus occurs about a week after ovulation, it is later in pregnancy (at least another week to ten days) before there is any effective maternal-placental blood circulation. The major theory for the cause of fetal malformations associated with diving concerns the possibility of transfer of intra-vascular bubbles from mother to fetus. As there is no effective circulation in the earliest stages of pregnancy we are considering, this is possible cause is not a concern.
Third, many thousands of women have been diving unknowingly at the same early stage of pregnancy you might be in - there is no evidence of an increase in miscarriages or other problems in these women who have been diving around the time of conception. In fact, before pregnant women were advised not to dive, several studies looked at women who dived throughout pregnancy. Although we no longer recommend diving during a recognized pregnancy, there is no solid scientific data to prove that diving is dangerous to the fetus.
Finally, the very early embryo is still composed of cells which have not yet undergone differentiation - that is, one cell isn't destined to be the heart, another the left arm, etc. If any single cell is damaged at this very early stage of pregnancy, other cells can "step in" to form the needed structures. Only later, after differentiation, will damage to a single cell likely result in an abnormality. "
Best regards for safe diving!
scubadoc
Diving Medicine Online
http://www.scuba-doc.com/
