There are different types of arthritis that we have to work on for these women, as we know that arthritis occurs mostly in women of reproductive age.
Dr. Annette Pérez Delboy, director of the Ashford Center. Photo: Journal of Medicine and Public Health. Fabiola Plaza.
In an exclusive interview with the Journal of Medicine and Public Health, Dr. Annette Pérez Delboy, gynecologist-obstetrician and specialist in Maternal-Fetal Medicine, explained the process of pregnant patients when they are diagnosed with Lupus o Arthritis Rheumatoid, where he highlighted that if patients are not controlled, the risk of preeclampsia, uterine retardation in the baby, loss of pregnancy and prematurity.
First, he stressed that the symptoms of Arthritis Rheumatoid, they do decrease, because the woman is immunosuppressed during the pregnancy. “We have a baby, and this baby we do not want the body to reject, that is why there is immunosuppression that is going to be fighting against these antibodies and many mothers feel fine, around 50%, if the mother is not in remission there is a 30% chance it stays the same and a 20% chance it gets worse. The problem is when you stop, that’s where the immune system goes and the pain intensifies.”
He indicated that when a patient with arthritis rheumatoid disease is not controlled, “the pain is going to intensify and we as doctors are trying to improve his quality of life during the 9 months, because if there is pain or inflammation, he cannot take aspirin, since this causes a decrease in the liquid around of the baby and damage to the kidneys; Of course, if the pain is extremely debilitating, we can give these mothers prednisone or immunoglobulin.”
He clarified that there are many medications for arthritis with which you can get pregnant and you can continue, but there are others that you cannot, so it is very important to use contraceptive methods to avoid getting pregnant before going into remission.
When referring to the patients, he said that they can arrive in 3 ways: “the first is referral, which is ideal, what we want, the other is if they arrive actively, with what medications are they arriving, for that reason On their first visit, what I do is check their joints, if they can move them, how they can open and close their legs and how the patient is doing for the delivery”.
He added that it is also important to check the relevance of the medications and determine if during the pregnancy another type of treatment can be managed. What he did make clear is that Omega 3 is recommended, “and it can be included through the diet, “see what we can consume, such as salmon or other foods where the Omega is found”,
Finally, he indicated that patients with LupusDr. Delboy, said that “when patients with Lupus they come to us, one of the main things we want to see is how their pressure is, first we see that their pressure is adequate, we check their kidneys that they work well and that they are adequate for the medications that we are going to give them”.