Pentasa

After several hospital stays, two colonoscopy's, several small bowel studies, blood work, biopsies, etc. I was FINALLY diagnosed with Crohn's. After my last hospital stay I was prescribed Pentasa and Predisone. I have been weening off the Predisone, now on 10mg e/o day for this week and then that's it. It seems that as I have begun to come off the Predisone I am starting to have twinges of pain. Of course my follow up after my hospital visit I was feeling ok because I was on the higher dose of steroids, but now not feeling as good. My concern is why I was feeling good and now that that is coming out of my system I'm going to have another fare up and end up back in the ER. Also curious to know if Pentasa has any effects with Birth Control, my Dr. did not seem to confident with his answer! Also curious for any women out there if they find that they have flare ups or problems with changes in their hormones. My last three hospital visits were 3 months in a row during the same time each month, right on cue with my second week of birth control pills. I questioned my Dr. if hormones could contribute or increase issues with a flare up and the response I got was that though he wasn't sure of any study, it could be possible. partly think i need a new Dr. who can answer some questions, but just curious to know if anyone has experienced any of these issues.


Lalee
Diagnosed with Crohns August 2009, IBD issues for years.

Hi Lalee - Pentasa doesn't work for a lot of people (me being one of them), so you may need to switch to a stronger maintenance medication if you're starting to feel bad again now that you're coming off the prednisone. You may have also not stayed on Pred long enough, you may still need a stronger dose to get your symptoms under control. I would strongly suggest seeing your doctor ASAP and telling him your concerns.

In regards to the birth control question, a lot of the women here take birth control with no negative effects, however, my GI told me not to take it because she said that she finds that the hormones make the disease more difficult to treat. Again though, I haven't seen any actual studies proving this, and I didn't NOTICE anything while I was on the pill, but the whole time that I was on it since I got sick, I was flaring anyway (I stopped almost right after I got diagnosed).

I don't think that the Pentasa itself would be interacting with the pill, but your CD might be. It's up to you to weigh the decision, but you might want to consider stopping taking it until you're in remission to see if it helps you at all. As I said, a lot of the women here claim that birth control helps their symptoms....but this disease is pretty complicated and symptoms/experiences tend to vary a lot between people. Hope this helps a bit!