Behcets and pregnancy

[Ant6543]

I'd be very grateful for any thoughts and advice on Behcets and pregnancy. I've heard that pregnancy reduces Behcets symptoms for the 9 months - is there any truth in this? Also, what are views on Azathioprine and Colchecine and pregnancy. We heard Colcechine is a definite no but there are mixed reports on whether Aza can be taken during pregnancy. We've had a couple of miscarriages and flare ups definitely seem to occur straight after.

[TonyWT Partner]

Ant,

You might find it helpful to read our Fact Sheet No 12 on the BSS website regarding Behcet's and Pregnancy at behcets.org.uk/information-...

Tony

[sian35]

Hi I didn’t have a diagnosis when I had my son but but my experience was that behcet was better during pregnancy then flared afterwards. Sorry I can’t help with drugs. If u live in England you could try centres of excellence as they see a good concentration of patients to have experience of this area. Good luck. Sian

[jzeis]

Hi Ant,

I've had BD since 1979, and I wrote two posts about pregnancy and BD for my "Essential Behcet's" blog. The first post is about my own experiences going through two pregnancies, and the second post is the results of a survey I did of 65 American women with BD who went through one or more pregnancies. You can see those posts here: behcets.blogspot.com/search...

Also, here's an article to share with your doctors about "points to consider for use of antirheumatic drugs before pregnancy, and during pregnancy and lactation."

One of the authors is Monica Ostensen -- any articles about pregnancy/meds in women with rheumatic diseases (like BD) are always worth reading:

ard.bmj.com/content/annrheu...

Best wishes!

Joanne Z.

[Zacerella]

Hi, I had 3 boys with Behcets although I wasn’t properly diagnosed until after the last child. They thought it may be Behcets just prior to getting pregnant with my last. As they weren’t sure I wasn’t medicated at all during pregnancy.

I was very lucky and found that with each pregnancy it would go in to remission, however approx 4-8 weeks after birth it would kick back in quite brutally, I guess because of change in hormones plus extreme lack of sleep. As I breastfed again I wasn’t given any medication (colchicine and steroids) until one year after birth when my baby was weaned... and what a relief that was!

I’m now a single parent of 3 unruly boys (ex couldn’t cope with my health issues and wild family life so had an affair when my youngest was 1 🙄) and also trying to work shift work to provide for them. I won’t say it’s easy juggling it all but it is worth it though recently with a down turn in health I realise you really must prioritise your health ahead of everything else.

Best of luck to you x

[Dawn_Dighton]

It can make things a bit better but It can make things a lot worse. I have 6 children and I didn't know I had Behcet's intil my last daughter. On my 3rd baby I got very poorly and was hospital with a fever that they couldn't control they didn't know what was wrong with me and I had to have my baby early. She was fine but I wasn't it was a hard time.but my first and second baby went well. I wasn't as unwell then.I don't know about med in pregnancy .is was 37 when I started on meds so I all ready had my children. I'm 44 now and my eldest daughter as been diagnosed with Behcet's she is very unwell and all of my other children are starting with this.my youngest has been in hospital a lot with this terrible condition.i did not know that I had this so it was to late for me .I love them all dearly but it kills me to see them suffer with this uncontrolled condition. Hope things go well for you and they can everyone is different and pregnancy is differentirely for everyone.