Rheumatoid arthritis: Does being pregnant have an effect on signs and symptoms?

Rheumatoid arthritis signs and symptoms normally subside all through being pregnant.

By Mayo Clinic Team

Many women of all ages with rheumatoid arthritis, a condition in which your immune system mistakenly attacks your body’s tissues, report improvement in their signs and symptoms all through being pregnant. Many also report a flare-up of signs and symptoms right after childbirth, typically inside the to start with 3 months.

Scientists are learning why these modifications arise. Because women of all ages are more probably than men to establish rheumatoid arthritis, 1 idea is that female sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, play a purpose.

But women of all ages who acquire prescription drugs that contains estrogen — as element of their oral contraceptive or hormone substitution remedy for menopause — typically really don’t have any adjust in their rheumatoid arthritis signs and symptoms.

For the duration of being pregnant, the mother’s immune system modifications to protect against the rejection of the fetus. Scientists are learning regardless of whether these modifications may be connected to an improvement in rheumatoid arthritis signs and symptoms.