VIDEO: Most women with rheumatic diseases report lack of guidance for family planning

AMSTERDAM — Despite current treatment recommendations, fewer than half of women of childbearing age with chronic rheumatic diseases reported visiting a health care professional prior to becoming pregnant, and a majority of these women had to initiate discussions of family planning themselves, according to data presented at the EULAR Annual Congress.

“We know that women with rheumatic diseases often have less children than those in the general population,” Rebecca Fischer-Betz, MD, from the Hiller Research Unit at the University Hospital of Düsseldorf in Germany, told Healio Rheumatology. “One of the reasons for this is because these women receive their diagnosis and initiation of treatment before having children, and only later on are able to consider having a family in spite of their disease.”

“What we found is that less than half of these patients actively planned their pregnancies; we know from other studies that there are many unplanned pregnancies among women with rheumatic diseases,” Fischer-Betz said. “On the other hand, women who stated that they had planned their pregnancies did not always get advice from their physicians. Many had to initiate the discussion by themselves; in fact, a majority noted that they had to ask their physician to provide them with advice about pregnancy as well as information about their treatment.”

Fischer-Betz noted that “We still have to improve the information on pregnancy and on family planning together with information and education on the safety of DMARDs before and during pregnancy. I think it is important that both the patients and treating physicians have access to the correct information to address these concerns.”