Pregnancy and RA? | Arthritis Information

I went for a 2nd opinion for RA and this Rheumy (who's been in practice for 35 years) says if there was a poster child for RA I would be chosen. He feels I'm in the early stages of it. He was trying to explain that after I gave birth to my daughter - 3 months later this all started and he feels that the pregnancy brought this on. Has anyone heard of this happening?Ive read a lot about this. I gave birth in Feb 07, and started having weird health problems (fatigue, strep) in the summer. But I wasn't anemic, thyroid was fine, etc. Joint problems didn't really manifest until December. I weaned my baby in Feb 08 so I could start taking meds.

I felt GREAT during my first pregnancy and had some mild health issues between pregnancies, that manifested about 1.5 years later. Problems with hips, interstitial cystitis. Well then I got pregnant again and felt great until cold/flu season, and last half the pregnancy was rough.

I guess you can never tell, but the can definitely trigger it. I think the more estrogen (during pregnancy) the better, and it is harder when estrogen levels are low (postpartum, then while breastfeeding, and menopause). I don't think they understand why, and it's not simple.

the way it was explained to me by my rheumy and my obgyn is that after any big shift in hormones you can develop ra. i guess you have to have a predisposition to ra, but a lot of times a few months after you give birth or have menopause, etc. you can have major flareups. mine started 2 months after i gave birth to my son, but it got continually better as my son got older with the help of meds, of course. we are now trying for another child and my rheumy is already trying to prepare me for a major flare up after birth...