crohn's anal skin tags and pregnant

Hi,

I was diagnosed with Crohn's in 2006 at age 25. My only symptoms were what I thought was hemorrhoids and diarrhea. NP finally looked and sent me to a coloretal surgeon who in turn suspected crohns right away and sent me for a colonoscopy. They found active disease in my terminal ileum and Anal fissures and crohns skin tags. I was on Enterocort for about 4 months and then was on 125mg of 6-MP daily. Diarrhea went away and have been symptom free since about 2007 other than the skin tags never going anywhere. I went off 6-MP in Jan of 2012 when hubby and I decided to try for a baby. Everything has been great and I am 36 weeks pregnant with a girl. During the pregnancy i have had a few bouts of constipation (which since having crohns probably since early high school, I really have never experienced in life) anyhow I think I have a few fissures from that and have recently begun to worry about delivery causing issues with the crohns tags and fissures. Have any of you had a similar situation and if so did you heal up just fine or did it make it worse?
Thanks!

My GI has agreed to see how things go staying off the medication for now. I will see him about 4 months after delivery unless I have problems before then. If necessary Entocort does not transfer to breastmilk and much of the reading i have done says that very little 6MP actually gets in as well so hopefully I will be able to breastfeed with no problems regardless of how the Crohn's behaves.

I'm almost the same as you mpbuff, but my perianal crohn's skin tags were misDX as hemmies and I ended up getting them banded which left them in a flared state as they were before the banding, shortly after that fiasco I was easily/quickly DX with my crohn's disease....I had another child after the fact and had no issues...you might want to take stool softeners for when you're feeling constipated, that should help avoid anymore fissures.

I was able to have a vaginal delivery thanks to the fact that I had already stretched from my first pregnancy...she was a big girl, 8lbs 15 oz and my son was a bit smaller at 8lbs, 3 oz...congratulations on your baby girl!!

To mpbuff4...I was diagnosed with Crohns Disease, finally, in 1990. I was 19 yrs old. I had several resections in 1992, with complications, as do most other CD pts that I have been reading about. I have been doing a lot of research lately re: my own health issues because I don't feel like my doctors are really "getting" what is going on with me. I was just recently diagnosed with Lupus as well so now I have to start seeing specialists for that. I have been on Remicade for 12 yrs now with good results but that may have added to the Lupus diagnosis, I don't know yet. Anyway, I actually signed up to be a member so that I could post a reply to your initial question. I also have an anal tag that my first GI told me was a hemorrhoid and should have it removed. Thank god I did not do that. I became pregnant in 1996 with my beautiful dgtr...6 lbs 11 oz, so not a really big baby. I stopped my crohns medications when I found out I was pregnant and really had an uneventful, good pregnancy. I delivered my dgtr vaginally and received a small episiotomy, that is when my life completely changed. I had months and months of a non-healing episiotomy pain and infections, multiple specialists who did not have answers etc. I finally ended up finding my current colon rectal surgeon in 1997 (still trying to find answers on how to heal). Within 1 minute of examining me and commented on the anal tag, which up until this point I still thought it was a hemorrhoid. He stated that he would expect all of his med students to know what that tag was and what the implications of it with Crohn's disease. Long, very long story short, I was informed that I should have been counseled by my OB to deliver by c-section Only!!! I have had many rectal abscesses, fistulas, recto-vaginal fistulas, seton drains placed etc to try to heal the area. 16 yrs later it is still not completely healed and still having issues with it. I did have another child in 1999, a healthy boy same weight, and had a successful uneventful delivery by C-section. I did have a very difficult pregnancy with him due to the injury of delivering in 1996. I know that I have written a book and I most certainly do not want to scare you because everybody's body reacts differently but please discuss the issue and possible complications of a vaginal delivery with the anal tag with your GI as well as your OB. I wish you the best of luck and congratulations on your new baby!

I too have active perianal crohns, my GI sent me to the colorectal surgeon for a consult before I got pregnant, she determined that I should only deliver via c section due the skin tags, large amounts of scar tissue and concerns about long term post delivery complications. Might be worth getting a surgeons input quickly, good luck to you and congrats!