Imuran Preg going great!

I had my 20 week ultrasound yesterday for this pregnancy, my first while on UC drugs including imuran. Just thought I'd share that our little girl (we have two boys already, so this was a surprise!) looked absolutely perfect. She had no growth abnormalities, her heart and brain and spinal cord and palate all looked perfect. And my UC? what UC-I'm feeling fantastic.

At any rate, so far, so good. Just wanted to put a happy (so far!) story on the board for those women contemplating pregnancy with these icky UC meds. I'm being followed by my regular OB, with a high-risk doc available on a consult basis. (we haven't needed her yet.)

Just thought I'd put our happy story out there for those of you thinking of pregnancy while "on drugs!" -Erica

Glad to hear things are going well with you erica....Other than my slight flare the baby is doing absolutly great. I had my 23 week US yesturday and he is growing nice and strong and everything looked good....his brain, heart, everything.

Great for me to hear. I am having my period now and not starting back on my birth control. I'm very excited and hopeful for a great second pregnancy soon. I love hearing from the healthy mommies and mommies-to-be because it gives me so much encouragement that I am not alone.

Thats good.. but I think thats an unfair risk for the child... these are heavy medications, was it not possible to wait till off such heavy medications?

take it as you wish.

Herbalgerbal, thanks for your post. That's a fair question that we wrestled with for about 2 &1/2 years as we contemplated this pregnancy. I've been advised that I'm on my current cocktail of drugs as a permanent solution, or until modern medicine makes something better available, or until I have surgery.

My first flare came during the 3rd trimester of my second pregnancy (I didn't know I had UC), so unfortunately I am aware of the reality of what can happen if I go off my meds while pregnant. It wasn't pretty then, and I'm incredibly lucky to still have delivered a premature, but ultimately very healthy, little boy. I entered the pregnancy weighing about 125 lbs, and weighed 128 the day I delivered due to the nasty nature of my flare. I spent a good portion of the last week sitting in the bathtub. I couldn't keep anything in my body, it all came out a mix of water and blood within about 10 minutes of eating or drinking anything.

My husband and I discussed our situation at length with a number of different doctors: high risk OB's, GI's, and pediatricians, and also my own internist and a number of people in research fields. Full disclosure: my husband is an internist, so we did a lot of emailing friends from med school and residency, and using them as contacts to talk to doctors all over the country.

Ultimately, I discovered that the biggest risk to any pregnancy for me was a UC flare, not any of the medications I was taking. Flares while pregnant are notoriously difficult to control, and I was at risk to either get myself wickedly sick or lose the baby. All of the medicines I take do pose a slight risk to the fetus. I think I read everything on medline, and discovered that the scariest drug, imuran, poses mostly risks of an early miscarriage. Women who got babies to term on imuran had the same # of healthy babies as non-imuran moms.

For what it's worth, I did have a miscarriage in fall '08 when I was around 7 weeks pregnant. I don't know if the imuran was the cause, or if, like many early pregnancies, it just "wasn't meant to be."

We have entered this pregnancy with a lot of anxiety, but as each week and test roll by with good news, I feel more and more confident that we made the right decision. This was not something we entered lightly, and I know a lot of other people are out there that are still in the "asking questions" phase. I didn't think enough positive stories were out there, hence this thread.

(and Lynn, congrats on your little mister! We have two boys and I adore them. You're in for a treat!)

-Erica

thats good to hear! i just today got back from dr's and finally said 'yes' to immuran.
ive been saying no cuz we are trying to have babies, but i have just been hit with the most severe case of UC ever.
im puking at least 80% of the times i go to the toilet, which is 20+ times a day and every single time there is tons of blood.
im in so much pain its horrible, i cant eat, i feel awful and it just sucks so bad i could cry right now.

so, dr finally talked me into it. he said its better to have a baby on immuran than have a baby in my condition without it.
and it was this post i read before i left today that helped me say yes.

so, i guess we'll see how i go.
and toothfairy, please keep us (me) posted on your progress etc.. it would most appreciated from a nervous freaked out maybe soon to be mummy >_<

I have been lucky enough to have two healthy baby girls while taking 175 mg imuran. Like tooth fairy here, we did a lot of research in medical journals and discussions with my OB and GI and concluded that there was not a real risk to the baby.

I did learn, rather abruptly after delivery of my first, that you CANNOT breastfeed on imuran--it passes into the breastmilk and suppresses the baby's immune system. But that's what formula's for I guess!

Thanks for sharing your good news! It cheered me up after what's been a bad UC day. (it's the little stuff, you know?)

I have been doing online research into the breastfeeding thing. I am finding that there is a lot of research saying that the amount that passes through the breastmilk is VERY small. We are currently trying to get pregnant and hope for a healthy pregnancy for me and baby. I thought since breastfeeding didn't work out with #1 that I would have no feeling to try again, but I find myself kinda wanting to try again. Anyone on here breastfed with Imuran or 6MP? I think there is one person that has. I read a lot of posts but never remember who said what....sorry.