Is It Safe To Continue Hydroxycholoquine For RA During Pregnancy?

Posted on Sun, 29 Dec 2013

Question: I was diganosed with Ra this year july. I am presently 7 weeks pregnant. My Ra is well controlled and I dont have any symptoms. I was taking hydroxycholoquine 400mg before and once I found out I am pregnant I stopped. My questions a) Do my condition put any risk on my pregnancy b) Is it ok to continue with my medication or i should stop it for now.

Answered by Dr. Divya Agarwal (10 hours later)

Brief Answer: not much risk, you may discontinue medication. Detailed Answer: hi, patients with RA are generally not at much risk to pregnancy especially if their disease is well controlled when they conceive. It is generally seen that the disease tends to go into remission when patients get pregnant. If you are asymptomatic as far as your arthritis goes then you can discontinue medication esp as long as you are in your first trimester and only if you get symptomatic you may restart medicine. But you need to be careful after your delivery as the disease tends to flare a few weeks post partum. Also many of the medications for RA are contra indicated during lactation like methotrexate. So as such there is no risk.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Divya Agarwal (23 minutes later)

Ok but i hope it had not done any harm so far.. I heard medocone take month to drain out of system ... Because only last week i found out that i am 7 weeks pregnant

Answered by Dr. Divya Agarwal (23 minutes later)

Brief Answer: no risk with hcq Detailed Answer: Hi, If you were only on hydroxychloroquine there is no risk. However if you were on methotrexate there is a risk.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad