Prednisolone & pregnancy

Hi all,

Wonder if there are any ladies with some words of wisdom for me. I have proctitis (UC related) and am treated with asacol. After having 2 consecutive miscarriages I was referred for investigations. Turned out that my nk cell count was very high and the treatment (ironically) is prednisolone from ov through to 12 weeks.

To cut a very long story short, I am now pregnant again - 7 weeks and started off on 25mg pred from ov, which was upped to 40mg on positive pregnancy test. This is the furthest so far I have got and I did see a heartbeat last week when I was 6 weeks. My worry is that I am not having much in the way of symptons and I can't help but think back to previous experience.

I am wondering if the pred suppresses some of the symptons? I am trying to reason with myself that it is an anti inflammatory. My (.)(.) aren't hugely sore at all, have only had minor stretching pains for a couple of nights this week and a little bit tired but not massively - again - would the pred dampen down the feelings of tiredness? ! I know that whilst on when actively ttc I felt like I was speeding along half the time.

Anyone elses experiences or advice would be gratefully recieved.

Thank you for taking the time to read xx

Congrats on your pregnancy. I agree with Pam, every pregnancy is different. I barely had any symptoms with my 2 pregnancies. Until morning sickness kicked in at 7 weeks with my second. With my first, my only ever symptom was sensitive nipples for a couple days then it completely went away. I didn't even feel pregnant for a long time. I was on pred for 4 weeks with my second. The pred will give you more energy that's for sure. I know it is easier said than done, but try not to worry. My husband would always tell me to relax because, "it's out of our hands".

i have not had any morning sickness. maybe 2 or 3 days total of vomiting in morning. but thats it really.
i have had extreme extreme fatique and my ( . Y . ) were very sore til about a week ago.
i started flaring at 9 weeks and now i am 16 weeks preggers.

i just finished my entocort/budesonide and im not sure if my flare is going away or coming back. the last week or so i have been showing my own usual signs of cming out of a flare, but now that i stopped entocort (ran out of prescription which is $275 for 30 days) it seems i might have stopped gettign better. not sure as i remember saying this same thing everytime im about to go in remission.

my dr wants me to continue entocort, but i dont have the money. my preggers dr wants me on prednisolone which is fine, but i dont konw if i should start it if im getting better or if i do i might throw me into remission quicker.

preg dr said tons of women take pred in pregnancy for many many different things and is perfectly safe.
so i am thinking of getting on that for a few weeks and see what happens.

i would be so sad to think that i will flare the whole term. would suck so bad. and now im told i cant lay on my back anymore which is the ONLY comfortable position when im flaring. gggrrrrrhhhh.

Don't worry AT ALL about your lack of symptoms! I had a little bit of fatigue, but had no breast tenderness and only a tiny amount of nausea. I honestly didn't feel pregnant until I started getting a bit of a tummy (not anything that looked like a baby bump, just thicker around the middle) around 15 weeks!

im having those stretching nigglings too!!!

i also have a wonderful thing called round ligament pain. its the ligaments on the sides of the uterus stretching.
so i have rectum pain, colon pain, pooping pain, general pain in that area and now uterus pain.

oh the joys!!!

im finally on pred now. 25mg for 2 weeks then taper.
hopefully it does its job and gets me out of this flare.
i feel ive been coming out of it for a while now but its not actually going away and its frustrating the hell outta me.
ggrrrr

I would say don't worry to much. It honestly will not do you any good. I know it is much harder said then done tho....

I ttc for 3yrs w/ my first. I had one miscarrage and i had about 10-12 chemical pregnancies during that time. After testing, we found a clotting disorder, so i never delt w/ NK cells. I took baby asa the next time i got pregnant and held on and delivered at 33wks after preterm labor, and complete placenta previa w/ bleeding.

I was dx. w/ my UC right after that birth.

Have you had all your clotting factors checking in addition to your NK cells? Wondering if they might add Baby asa in addition to your pred.??? Are you seeing a Perinatologist? This is a high risk pregnancy doctor. Your regular OB can continue to see you, but you should also remain in the care of a Peri, seen probally every two weeks for testing.

I saw my peri one wk, and my ob the next wk, that way every wk i saw a doctor. These two docs talked on the phone very often about me to decide on my care.

My second pg. i started w/ vaginal progestrone and baby asa. I flared w/ my UC right away and was put on prednisone, 40mg. I tapered and flared again and went into premature labor. They stopped labor, put me back on pred and after taper i remained on 10mg the rest of the pregnancy. I did have side effects from the pred, insomnia, eating alot/could be pregnancy to?, mood swings, ect. I was very worried about the side effects to the baby, which do include cleft lip/palete, tho it's a low stat. I had 3 level 2 ultrasounds to check for cleft lip/palete and other problems related. Thankfully , we did not have any issues there. As my doctor put it, the benifit of the pred. outweighed the risk (cleft lip can be fixed), miscarrage, or premature delivery can't.....
I delivered that baby at 34wks after alot of bedrest and hospitalizations, ALL worth it!
Hang in there!!! Something this sweet does NOT come easy! Just because u r not "feeling" what people expect to feel during pregnancy, does not mean that anything is wrong. PLEASE don't worry, unless they tell u that u have something to worry about!!!! Turn it the other way, and ENJOY every moment, feeling, sensation!!! There is a high risk message board on ivillage which really helped me through both my pregnancies. Good luck to you!!!

what is baby asa ?

i see you both mention it, but ive never heard of it.

i am seeing a high risk dr because of flaring UC and pregnancy.
everything is low risk and normal so far.
just wanted to have him just in case.

Hi ladies,

Just incase you were wondering I had my 8 week scan yesterday and everything is as it should be I am feeling very relieved and happy and counting blessings I have no sickness, long may it continue!! I've never got this far before, so feel like I am able to relax a bit more now!

Hurray

Yay!!! That's awesome news....we're all pulling for you and your little baby! After something like 6 weeks, I know the chances of miscarriage drop dramatically, and keep dropping as time goes on.

That's great news! My OB said that having UC doesn't put you at high risk. Sounds like they are taking excellent care of you.

My OB said the only issue with UC would be growth of the baby but that the baby would get everything first before the mom, so the mom would suffer more than the baby. I didn't eat for months and lost a lot of weight when I was pregnant and throwing up for the first 4 or 5 months but my baby was born a week early (scheduled c-section because he was breech) and was still 7 pounds, 10 ounces