Methotrexate affect periods?

pavanabhat

My daughter has been diagnosed with JIA and has been taking methotrexate injections since Sep 2023. She got her first periods in early Nov followed by second one in late Dec 2023. Since then she hasn't had her periods( > 6 months now). I have read that mtx can cause periods to stop.

Her rheumatologist thinks its not related to mtx injections.

Has this happened to anyone else? How to get her periods back?

claudsl

Hi @pavanabhat

I have found a previous thread regarding Methotrexate and periods, it may be worth reading through other peoples experiences on this subject. From what I can see, MTX has affected some of our members and their monthly cycles. If your daughter has had regular periods up until starting this medication, it seems there could be a good chance it is connected, so I would speak to her Rheumatologist again and see if there are any further tests/investigations that could be done.

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/48128/can-methotrexate-cause-missed-period

Hope this helps! Claudia x

RavenStarwynd

Methotrexate is basically a nasty drug I’ve just come off it and thankfully things are slowly getting back to normal. Whilst I was on it my hair changed it destroyed my teeth and nails chronic tiredness and the list goes on and on and it didn’t work for me either. I would ask them to look at putting her on a biological injection like Humera as opposed to methotrexate I know most nhs trusts have a protocol where it’s mandatory to try certain drugs before you are offered biologicals and methotrexate is one of them. Good luck I hope you get it sorted for her.

noddingtonpete

Hello @RavenStarwynd and welcome to the Community. We are a friendly and supportive group and I hope that will be your experience as well.

A shame methotrexate didn't work for you it works for a lot of people, but then we are all different. I hope that you have found something now that works for you and helps with the arthritis. If you have any questions or want to know more about arthritis and treatments head over to our website, or just ask on this Community.

Best wishes

Peter

Moira

Methotrexate worked for me without lots of side-affects. If it is causing so much I'd ask your rhumatologist to put you onto one of the other drugs available.

Periods: Your daughter may be like I was. I had my first period when I was 13. I then had a gap of 6 months before the the next one. Then it took 2 years for them to settle down to a normal pattern. Apparently the GP said it was "just me"

When I was on Methetrexate it didn't affect my periods.

Hope you can solve the problem.