It is common knowledge now that rheumatoid arthritis is systemic and chronic and affects the body’s autoimmune system. It causes inflammation of joints and can be found in women of any age, not just older ones. It can also be found in pregnant women where the woman will experience a change in her autoimmune system.
There have also been discoveries of ameliorating effects of having rheumatoid arthritis whilst pregnant. Even with all of this, approximately 70 to 80% of pregnant women with rheumatoid arthritis will experience remission during the pregnancy but there are some cases where the condition can worsen which results in the patient needing to be treated whilst pregnant.
Temporary Relief and Improvements
Despite the vast improvement a pregnant woman with rheumatoid arthritis feels, the improvement is generally only temporary with patients soon relapsing during the postpartum period. Why pregnant women experience this temporary alleviation of pain during pregnancy has yet to be fully understood but there have been several theories put forward that suggest it could occur due to the changes in hormones during pregnancy or it could be another affect of pregnancy that comes from changes to immune systems.
Studies show that figures related to rheumatoid arthritis and pregnancy reveal that the disease only affects about 1 to 2% women yet despite this low number, this is more common than you think. Other studies show that the effect of it on pregnancy in relation to maternal morbidity rates remains unaffected. In actual fact the studies show that the in both types of people, those pregnant and non-pregnant the morbidity rates are the same.
Therefore it is wise to assume the approach that rheumatoid arthritis and pregnancy are unrelated in any fatal outcomes, although there are some reported cases of premature births and reduction in growth due to the disease. But as far as fatal outcomes are concerned, reports suggest that having it will not affect the outcome either way.
Thus, it is fair to say that there are no ill long term affects on a woman’s health condition when it comes to rheumatoid arthritis and pregnancy and further studies agree that there is no changes in the final outcomes of pregnancy.