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Remicade and ovaries....

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 1/20/2009 4:54 PM (GMT 0)
has anyone ever heard anything about remicade destroying women's ovaries? i just posted about how im having ovarian cyst problems and extremely painful periods now...my mom is a little worried because a friend of her's, whose daughter was having crohn's symptoms (turns out it was something else) talked to a doctor who was against remicade for women because he came across a lady whose ovaries were destroyed from remicade...i don't know how much truth there is to this..it's kind of fishy to me because no where on the remicade paperwork does it mention anything about risks for ovary problems.
Posted 1/20/2009 5:13 PM (GMT 0)
i sure hope not :S
But there are lots of women who have had baby on Remicade.

I plan on having one myself as soon as my flare goes away i hope it will be soon..
Posted 1/20/2009 5:23 PM (GMT 0)
I would love to see whatever scientific data that doctor has to back it up. I have gotten pregnant 6 times while on remicade - so my ovaries seem to be working just fine.
Posted 1/20/2009 6:00 PM (GMT 0)
hi stef17,

just wanted to ask you if these pregnancy's ended with a healthy baby?
And did you give birth normally or with a c-section?
Posted 1/20/2009 7:09 PM (GMT 0)
My doctor told me that Remicade and 6mp damages ovaries but I wasn't having any more children anyway
Posted 1/20/2009 8:00 PM (GMT 0)
3 of my pregnancies have ended with a perfectly healthy baby. I had c-sections with all 3. Emergency c-sec with #1, because I was induced and as the labor progressed I wouldn't dilate and baby needed to get out! Planned VBAC for #2, went into labor on my own, but my cervix wouldn't dilate, so I had a necessary c-section and #3 was a planned c-sec from the start.

Interesting theory that I got from another girl on here - her GI believes women on remicade will end up with c-sections because: Remicade has Anti-TNF-a properties (anti-inflammatory) and TNF-a is one of the things that helps ripen the cervix. Funny how that's what ripens the cerivx and mine doesn't want to dilate. I don't know if that's just a coincidence OR if my inability to progress with dilation has to do specifically with the fact that I was taking remicade. I know there are other women who have had vaginal births and have taken remicade throughout the pregnancy, so???? I don't know. Maybe it affects some of us differently than others. I don't believe there are any scientific studies on it.
Posted 1/21/2009 4:44 PM (GMT 0)

I've been on remicade for 7 years (?) and never had any cysts (that I knew about) and am currently 8 1/2 weeks pregnant.   

I DO now have a cyst, I only know that because of the ultrasound.   But my sister has a history of ovarian cysts and does not have Crohn's (obviously not on remicade).   The two other people in my life that have cysts on a regular basis are also not Crohn's patients so I agree this data sounds fishy.

Posted 1/21/2009 5:35 PM (GMT 0)
I don't know of any link between the two. I was 15 when I was diagnosed with endometriosis based on my symptoms of severe lower right quadrant pain. I was 23 when a CT scan showed uterine fibroids. I'm still not sure to this day if I have endometriosis as that was never surgerically looked at, but I do think it's common for our gastro issues to be mistaken as "women's issues" and vice-versa. So I really feel that the correlation only exists between our symptoms, and that there's no causation of Remicade causing ovarian damage.

I got pregnant in September (while in a huge flare-up- it was completely not planned) and lost my baby at 10 weeks. My GI made a comment that it could have been related to me being on the Remicade, but I, my GI and OB/GYN (both of whom are D.O.'s) ardently disagree. First off, a miscarriage in the 1st trimester can happen without any mitigating factors, and second, literally thousands of women are having perfectly beautiful and healthy babies on Remicade.

So there's that for all it's worth! :)

Posted 1/22/2009 12:32 AM (GMT 0)
mandolen, you are not the only person on this board who has had a miscarriage while on remicade. I remember another person who had two miscarriages (I believe she said it was two).

While miscarriages are pretty common in the 1st trimester, I certainly appreciate the honesty of reporting them while we're on medication or flaring. Whether or not they are related, it's important for people to make informed decisions.

I had hemmorages in both my pregnancies (1st trimester), and nearly miscarried but with bedrest and prayer and whatever else I could possibly do, I had two healthy children. I was flaring terribly with intestinal obstructions, on high doses of prednisone & pentasa. I'm convinced both times were related to the CD flares.
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