Methotrexate and pregnancy

Cazaline87

Hi All,

New to the forum here! Hello everyone, looking forward to being part of the community .

I have a question regarding methotrexate and pregnancy so quite a personal one. Has anyone ever gotten pregnant on MTX? I know this is a big no no no(!), as MTX can cause birth defects, but my period is almost 4 days late now on an already long cycle, I'm now on day 37 where as my longest has been 34. I'm too scared to take my MTX and don't know whether it's too early to take a pregnancy test.

It might just be late down to stress but it's never been this late before, and now I'm really over thinking things through and possibly over reacting, but I just want to be prepared!

I'd love to have a baby but not under the circumstance of potential birth defects. I couldn't live with myself if I had caused such a problem on my future child .

Thanks everyone for listening to my ramblings and apologies if TMI.

Caroline x

[Deleted User]

Welcome to Arthritis Care Forums Cazaline87 from the moderation team

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Mod JK

dibdab

Hi Caroline,

Sorry I don't have personal experiences to relate, but maybe it would be a good plan to speak to your rheumy team asap for some advice? I'd try not to panic, all kinds of things can knock your cycle haywire, and I think there are some commercially available pregnancy tests that can be used early on so maybe it's worth exploring what the chemist have on offer to put your mind at rest.

Deb xx

LignumVitae

Hello

That is a difficult predicament. I've not been pregnant on meth myself no but I have read studies on it a while ago (before I got pregnant whilst not on it). The main issue with mtx and pregnancy is that it is a folate anatagonist and whilst you are pregnant you need extra folic acid for healthy fetal development. As I recall there are cases of healthy births following mtx exposure but obviously, these are a minority and there are many more cases of birth defect and miscarriage - after all, it is also used during miscarriage, ectopic pregnancies and abortions as a treatment. I'm sorry, this probably sounds very hard and a little unsympathetic. I'm guessing that things would depend on the dosage you take - 25mg being high, 7.5 being low and how many doses you have taken since you may have become pregnant (do you have a clue when you may have ovulated? it isn't necessarily mid cycle). You can get early indicator tests that are supposed to be able to tell you earlier than a traditional test, I think they cost a bit more. I second Dibdab's very sensible advice though, I think if there is a chance you may be pregnant it is probably worth contacting your rheumatology team. If you aren't likely to get a quick response and you need one then you could always make a GP appointment. With regards your immenent meth dose, you can always miss a week, it isn't going to make a huge amount of difference to your arthritis treatment and that is what you would do if you had a cold or similar infection isn't it?
Good luck, LV

Cazaline87

Thanks both for your responses, very helpful! I'll hold off on MTX for a few more days, if by Friday period is a no show then I'll take a test and book in with my GP. I was on 20mg MTX but that's now down to 17.5mg and I take folic acid 5mg 6 days a week so that's reassuring I'm at least keeping the folate levels up. My rheumatologist is hard to get hold of but will go to GP first as don't want to worry rheumy unless I have to. It could all just be down to stress but I guess time will tell!

Thanks again for your advice xx