Anyone Experianced Pregnancy with Remicade and Azathioprine?

[RayannaV]

Hello, I'm very glad to have found this forum because I'm really stressed about what my Crohn's and medications are going to mean for us when we want to start our family.

I am currently on Remicade infusions every 8 weeks and take 200mg of Azathioprine daily. It's hard to say what state my Crohn's is in. In the past I've felt fine and then had colonoscopies and other tests reveal that things are bad. When I started the Remicade 2 years ago, they did an MRI and found a moderate amount of inflammation in my small intestine and several bowel loop fistulas. My most recent MRI showed that the disease and fistulas look exactly the same as 2 years ago but my blood tests show my inflammation markers and iron levels as being in the normal range now so my Dr. believes that most of the disease we are seeing on the MRI is just scar tissue now. He says as long as I don't get a blockage in the fistulas it should be fine and not require surgery.

My husband and I would like to have children soon but I'm so worried about pregnancy while on Remicade and Azathioprine. I know there are other drugs that are safer for pregnancy but I don't want to switch and jeopardize my health. It's really hard to get a straight answer on the risk of taking these drugs during pregnancy. Even my Dr. seems unsure. I'm just not sure what to think anymore. I'm also wondering if my intestinal fistulas/scar tissue will be a concern.

I'd love to hear from anyone with any information or experience with these drugs during pregnancy. Thank you!

 

[nicola30]

Hi Rayanna, i would just like to say that ive just had a healthy baby girl while takin 200mg a day aza and remicade but that was stopped just before my 3rd trimester, my crohns was fine during pregnancy i had to b under a consultant too, i had the choice to stop my meds durin pregnancy but got told its better for me to have them as stoppin could cause problems. My daugher did come a month early tho but dont think it had anythin to do with crohns.. i am now in a flare and im waitin to go back on remicade which will b started once im off my antibiotics! i did get told that if i had a c-section then the remicade wouldnt b able to start up again until that was healed but if u were to have a normal delivery then remicade can start as soon as, i did however have all the docs on the ward i was on after havin baby reading up on m meds, crohns ect to find out if its safe to breastfeed as thats wot i wanted to do, the nurse came back laughin cos she said she had never seen so many doctors runnin for books lol it turned out that it is ok to breastfeed while on both aza and remicade, im not breastfeeding anymore as i couldnt produce enough milk but i did breastfeed the first week! my little girl weighed 7lb 4oz and that was a month early!! i have 2 other girls ((14 and 11) and i never had crohns then and both girls were over due one 6 days and the other 2 weeks so was a shock that baby was early aha dont no if it could b linked to crohns or not tho, hope this helps a little good luck with everything xx

 

[lookame]

I was pregnant recently, she's 4 months old now (3 month adjusted...a preemie) anyway I started off on Remicade but after 2 doses while pregnant i became severely allergic and had hives in my throat and large hives surrounding my mouth. I switched to humira.

i will say that during my pregnancy i had a relatively decent time and went into remission however I don't believe my body was absorbing all the nutrients. I became severely anemic towards the end of my pregnancy (at one point my iron was 6.9) and i started to feel sick the last 2 weeks. I was being monitored by maternal fetal med and the last growth scan i had determined that my baby was suffering from in uterine growth restriction (they predicted a 4 to 5 lb baby, she was 3 lbs 7 ozs), my body was going toxic and suffering from severe pre eclampsia. After her birth they found her cord was wrapped around her neck twice and her placenta had sectioned off and became a satillite placenta. Even with all the trouble she came out perfect and only needed a 9 day nicu stay and she's doing great now.

Normally pregnancies with crohns or colitis patients are very easy and they don't have nearly as many complications as I did so don't be scared off by that. I could just be the one fluke in thousands of mommies but I do highly suggest that you been seen by maternal fetal medicine as well as a regular OB or midwife.