Many women with rheumatoid arthritis experience improvement during the second trimester of pregnancy and it can last up to six weeks after giving birth. Many people with rheumatoid arthritis report that their symptoms improve a lot during pregnancy, especially in the second three months of pregnancy. Rheumatoid arthritis is a condition in which the immune system mistakenly attacks joints and other tissues in the body. The ability of the disease to evade immunosuppression associated with pregnancy, as in the case of our patient, may serve as a predictive factor for a more rapid and serious course of the disease.
In patients who were diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis before pregnancy, rheumatoid arthritis deteriorated between 40 and 60% of the patients, with at least one moderate flare.15 One study showed that 70% of women reported a deterioration in disease activity during the postpartum period. 16 In total, 66% of the women in this study reported increased joint inflammation and 62% of the patients had an increase in the number of affected joints. The median number of affected joints increased from 6 during pregnancy to 10 joints 6 months after delivery 16. In our patient, postpartum follow-up revealed a course that progressively worsened up to 4 months after delivery. The patient needed intervention with antihypertropic drugs and an increase in the dose of methylprednisolone after an initial decrease, because the symptoms were temporarily and temporarily relieved and lasted only a few weeks after delivery.
Inflammatory types of arthritis can affect pregnancy from conception to weeks or months following birth. And pregnancy can make a difference, whether good or bad, in a mother's illness. However, it is not possible to predict the course of the pregnancy or how it will affect the symptoms of arthritis. But the good news is that, with the knowledge and a strong health care team, most women with inflammatory types of arthritis and related conditions can have healthy pregnancies.
Postpartum arthritis may initially appear during pregnancy and last several weeks to months after pregnancy. childbirth.
