Hello! Sulfasalazine and getting pregnant

RachelD

Hi everyone,

Nice to meet you all and find others who are having the same struggles.

I was diagnosed with RA in summer 2020 - it started as a pain in my right finger but quickly progressed. Although we were in the midst of Covid I did manage a reasonably quick referral and settled in to Methotrexate which, after 4-5months worked well and I was reasonably pain free.

My husband and I are going to try for a baby and so I switched to Sulfasalazine in Dec last year but it is in no way as effective. I don't have so much acute/isolated pain in my joints but a lot more of the other RA symptoms - fatigue, general body aches/flu like feelings, disturbed sleep and so on. I've also got terrible pain in my right abdomen/back which I can't help but think is related.

Could I ask if there are any other mid thirties women out there who have tried other drugs with any luck? I'm seeing my GP tomorrow so I'll also update if there is any useful insight for others.

Thanks everyone!

Anna

Hi @RachelD and welcome to the online community,

I understand that you and your husband are trying for a baby and you've switched to sulfasalazine but your feeling more of the general RA symptoms so you wonder if other mid-thirties women have tried other drugs with more success.

There are other members on the forum who are trying to get pregnant or who are pregnant, so you might like to link up with some of them to share notes. It's great that you will give an update from your GP that I'm sure will be useful for others.

Versus Arthritis website has a page that you might find useful - it talks about fertility and pregnancy for women with arthritis, and there's a personal story at the end from one of our members:

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

There are also a few discussions on the forum about drugs and pregnancy. I've linked to one recent thread below, but you can probably find plenty more:

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/52322/trying-to-get-pregnant-and-coming-off-medication

Good Luck, and do let us know how you're getting on. If you have any more questions, or want to post your updates, the Living with Arthritis forum is a good place to post.

Anna (Mod)