Posted 9/10/2012 2:26 AM (GMT 0)
Steph, I'm sorry you've had this bad timing of a pregnancy, and that it has made you feel worse, Crohn's wise. I think a lot of us who've had pregnancies found ourselves pretty sick in the first trimester (not uncommon across the board). After that, as pb4 said, it's not possible to predict whether pregnancy will put you in remission (I had a lovely 2nd half of pregnancy) or increase the risk of a flare. Most of the Crohn's meds we take are safe for pregnancy. Most GIs would like to see their Crohn's patients in remission before a pregnancy, but this isn't always possible.
Since you have had Crohn's a long time, have you had any resections or surgeries? Fistulas? I know that many people with a history of resections and fistulas have pelvic scarring that can make conceiving difficult. One of my friends had a lot of damage to her ovaries from scarring in her pelvis and it was very, very difficult to get pregnant. With that in mind, even though this is not the right time for you to have a baby, and I have no idea whether you are married or in a serious relationship, but if you can, try to have your children as soon as you can manage. After age 35 it becomes harder to get pregnant for every kind of woman, and a woman with an inflammatory bowel disease is probably going to find it even more challenging.
As for what might happen after an abortion, I think you can figure that out based on how your disease behaves when you have your regular menstrual cycle. There are a lot of hormonal changes that happen, even in an early pregnancy, so you should be prepared for a potential increase in your bowel symptoms if that is how your regular periods go.