Pregnancy is possible in women with ulcerative colitis

Ask Dr. Keith Roach M.D

Pregnancy is possible in women with ulcerative colitis

DEAR DR. ROACH: I need some hope. My 24-year-old granddaughter, recently married, came down with ulcerative colitis. Right now, she is getting two Humira injections a month. She has lost so much weight and her diet is so limited. Do things normally get better? Will she ever be able to become pregnant? It has been about four months. She is presently seeing a GI doctor. Should she be under the care of a specialist? — L.M.O.S.

ANSWER: Ulcerative colitis is one of the inflammatory bowel diseases. The underlying cause is not known, but there is a familial predisposition. Women are more often diagnosed, and the leading time of diagnosis is in the 20s. There is a wide range of severity, with some people doing well with topical treatments (suppositories or enemas), some needing oral medication, and people with more severe disease needing much more powerful agents, such as the adalimumab (Humira) your granddaughter needs. Fortunately, those kinds of drugs have approximately a 60 to 70 percent success rate. Diet is important for people with UC of any severity; however, as the disease becomes better controlled it is likely that she will have a less restricted diet.

A GI doctor is a gastroenterologist, the specialist for inflammatory bowel diseases. There are some gastroenterologists who specialize even further, making IBD their area of particular expertise.

Pregnancy is certainly possible in women with IBD. However, they should be in remission before attempting pregnancy, and her medications may need to be adjusted for maximum safety.

There are many places to get additional information, but I recommend the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation website as an excellent starting point. It can be found at www.crohnscolitisfoundation. org. *** Dr. Roach regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but will incorporate them in the column whenever possible. Readers may email questions to ToYourGood-Health@med.cornell.edu or send mail to 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803.