RA and wanting babies

Emswp

Hi everyone!
I was diagnosed with RA 6 months after having my daughter, now nearly 3. I was in an incredible amount of pain but very quickly got the treatment i needed and it is now easily controlled by just hydroxychloroquine luckily. Ive not had a flare up since so have been really lucky. I have in the last 6 months had 2 miscarriages - each time i stopped taking the meds when i found out i was pregnant so i have 2 questions:
1. Do you think taking hydroxychloroquine is fine as most sources state (anyone been in that situation)
2. Is it possible that stopping meds could cause issues with my immune system which then caused the miscarriage? Im over thinking everything at this stage.
Im 38 soon and desperate to have more children but feel time is not on my side. Would love to hear of success stories of pregnancy and or advice from anyone please!!
Emma xx

Thanks in advance

[Deleted User]

Hi Emswp,

Lovely to meet you, we have another new mum on the forum at the moment, it might be nice to offer each other support, it's not often we have young mums here (yes at your ages you are still young!)

Generally people usually talk things through with their rheumatist team before starting to try to get pregnant. Your drug isn't one of the clearly ruled out ones but often it's best to be clear of some drugs for a period of time before pregnancy starts.

Here's our booklet on pregnancy and arthritis

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/living-with-arthritis/pregnancy/

I'm so glad you are one of our success stories, for whom meds work well, do please drop in once in a while to remind everyone that for most the drugs give a good level of control and life can continue more or less as expected.

Take care and good luck

Yvonne x

stickywicket

Hi Emma and welcome from me too. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for RA to start up after a pregnancy. Maybe it's something to do wth hormones. Who knows? Mine started long before either of my pregnancies but flared horribly after both.

Hydroxy is considered safe but we are all different. Maybe it's causing the problems you're having and maybe not. I doubt even the rheumatologist could help. The usual drug when trying to concieve and during pregnancy seems to be prednisolone. Back in the day, when I was pregnant, even that was forbidden and I was just on soluble aspirin. It was a total nightmare but I'd never have taken anything that could have harmed the baby. The baby is now a very fit 46 yr old

It's easy for us to blame either the disease or the meds for all that goes wrong. Sometimes, just as with everyone else, other things come into it.

I think it'd be a good idea to talk things over with your rheumatologist. Or even ask to see a gynae in case there's anything not quite in order since your previous birth. Good luck!