Effective & Trusted Medications Guide » Pregnancy & Childbirth
Women who are sexually active sometimes get confused about the use of family planning pills. One minute they are convinced that the pills are a good way of reducing the normally heavy flow during periods the next minute they are being made to believe that the pills lower the sex drive and makes a woman add a lot of weight. The much dreaded weight gain makes the woman swear never to use the pills again but the health advantage of lowering ovarian cancer makes her change her mind. There are several birth-control pill myths which are very misleading in some instances. Sometimes it becomes hard to separate reality of birth control from the myths.
Management of pregnancy in women with rheumatic diseases
All women with rheumatic disease should undergo counselling before conception for their specific risk profile and subsequent design of a management plan. At that time, the several clinical features that substantially can increase the risk of pregnancy complications (Table 2) should be reviewed.
Table 2: What makes a pregnancy “high risk”?
Previous poor obstetric history
Renal impairment
Cardiac involvement
Use of medication during pregnancy and lactation
Information regarding the safety of many drugs in pregnant women is incomplete and difficult to obtain. Recently, however, a group of obstetricians, rheumatologists and internists with experience in the management of pregnancy in women with rheumatic diseases reached consensus on the use of antirheumatic drugs during pregnancy and lactation.
A summary of these conclusions is shown in Table 1.