Thursday, November 19, 2009 Amber asks

Q: Postpartum RA?

I was a healthy 29 year old when I got pregnant. About 1 month postpartum I started having joint pain in my shoulders, same pain I had every month before my period, then I got sore throat, which I also got every month before my period. I assumed the pain in my shoulder was hormonal due to my postpartum state. Then I started getting apin in all of my joints after I had two bacterial infections from breast feeding.

I went to the doctor becuase I was not able to get up off of the couch by myself at times due to knee pan and picking up my new baby was becoming harder to do. When I got my results back this is what was positive:

ANA Titer: 80

EBV VCA igG Value/ Mono: 4.79

RA Factor: 1900

ESR (Westergren): 34

My GP told me I most likley have RA. I can't get in to see a Specialist until December 14th about 1 month away. It's hard to believe I was perfectly healthy, no family history and I had a baby and suddenly I have RA... I guess it's possible. I'm curious if any one has any information on pregancy hormones causing RA or anythng about hormones and RA. Looking back it seems every month before menstration I would have a flare up in my shoulders.

Thank you to anyone who has any information regarding this or anything that might help me.

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Answers (5)

Ellen Galo

11/19/09 12:20pm

Hi - I'm 58 and with one full-term pregnancy, did not have a problem, but I came down with RA as I was going off hormone replacement. Hormones don't cause it, I think they just put it off a little while. Adding them doesn't help, you can't turn the clock back unfortunately. RA runs in my family too - my grandmother, aunt and cousin all got RA in their 50s....

Hope

11/19/09 7:45am

I have read several articles about this. I had the same problem and when I asked my rheumy he said that sometimes the pregnancy brings on the inflamation. However, I have family history, but the pregnancy is not the cause you would have gotten the desease anyway, just a little sooner because of the prenancy. i have not read why this happens, I've never seen an article that explains.

Kelly Young

11/19/09 5:29pm

Hi Amber,

So sorry this has happened to you. RA often strikes right after a pregnancy. It is considered a trigger. Like Ellen said, you would have gotten it eventually. Actually, it sounds like you already had RA in a way that is called "Palindromic" - it means it comes and goes without damage until it becomes "full blown" like it is now.

It is now believed that it is critical to get on disease fighting treatment asap (some studies say within 6 to 12 weeks) of beginning of disease to try to get a remission or stop the permanent damage of RA. With an Rf that high and your symptoms, RA is very likely the diagnosis. I hope you can get to a Rheumatologist asap.

There will be so many questions. RA is very complicated illness. You will have to learn a lot. This is a good place to start. I also have a blog about RA which would help you. Here is a link to a page about Palindromic RA, but you can search the tags "diagnosis" or "treatments" to find some of what you need.

Good luck to you, Amber. Hope this helps some. Love that baby! Mine started after my last baby also...

Kelly

http://rawarrior.com

LauraMM

12/10/09 8:25am

I'm sorry you've had to go through this. I was diagnosed as "most likely RA" by my rheumy in July and my Rf was around 200 something (which was still high). With everything I've read those of us who have RA would have got it regardless but it takes something to trigger it. I've also done my research because we plan to have another child (I'm 27 and have a 3 year old) and aparently the hormones in pregnancy can lower the pain of RA into almost a remission phase but once the baby is born it can come back even worse than before. For me I had a bad bronchial infection for a month as my trigger. As I started to recover I did my gardening and I thought that was why I was sore but it only got worse until I would cry trying to pull up my pants.

Hind sight is a funny thing. I had been to the doctor with pain in my pinky finger the previous year but they said it was an odd place for arthritis to start so I had probably injured it. The pain lasted for months. As a child I had problems with my knees and ankles (flat arches and patellaphemoral) so I assumed when I got old I would have athritis. The pain had started to come and go again and I figured it's because I wasn't wear my proper shoe orthodics.

When I got into my rheumy in July the pain had disappeared and I felt like I was going crazy. He explained that he couldn't "officially" diagnose because it was in the early stages where it can come and go but that with my symptoms and Rf I had a higher chance of it becoming full-blown and a more extreme form. A few weeks after my appointment the pain came back.

I didn't know there was any in my family until I spoke to my grandmother after I was diagnosed as RA and she told me that her sister (my great-aunt) was diagnosed with an extreme case of Juvenile RA at the age of 14. You might be surprised if you dig a little deeper into your family history because no one in my immediately family (grandparents, parents, siblings, counsins, aunts or uncles) had it.

kbsmommy

12/10/09 9:10am

I too have no family history of RA. I started having joint pain after the birth of my daughter in 2002. My doctor said sometimes the stress on the body during pregnancy can cause RA. My first sign of it was in my ankles. I was walking an average of 3 miles a day with my daughter. When the pain got so bad i went to my doctor, he thought i had an achilles tendon problem from walking, so he sent me to a specialist. He did tests and diagnosed me with RA in sept. 2002. Good luck and keep moving. Try not to let the pain keep you down, i know this is very hard at times

Q: Postpartum RA?

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