Can a person with Crohn’s disease get pregnant?

  Patients with Crohn’s disease need to take medication for life, under the guidance of doctors to seize the disease remission period to reduce or stop medication can still be pregnant.  The 26-year-old Xiaolan, from Zhanjiang, has had a bad stomach since she was a child, and was examined for Crohn’s disease during an intestinal obstruction three years ago. The doctor said that Crohn’s disease patients need to take medication for life. She and her husband have always wanted to have children, and she was worried that long-term medication would affect her pregnancy and childbirth. A few days ago, she saw a post on the Internet saying that vitamin B can control inflammatory bowel disease, and she was eager to try it but was afraid it wouldn’t work.  Patients like Xiaolan can use the period of remission to reduce or stop some of the medications to get pregnant under the guidance of a doctor. The claim that vitamin B can control inflammatory bowel disease is unfounded. Patients must adhere to the principles of standardization and individualization in treatment, and must not believe in biased prescriptions.  Rare disease becomes common, the cause is still unknown: Ho-chan had an operation for intestinal obstruction in his hometown, since the end of last year, has been diarrhea, and sometimes a persistent low fever, weight loss has also dropped sharply, lost 20 pounds. Last month, Ho-chan was admitted to the hospital again for intestinal obstruction and was finally diagnosed with Crohn’s disease.  ”I checked the hospital’s past medical records and 30 years ago, there would only be 10 cases of Crohn’s disease a year in southern hospitals, which was a rare disease at the time.” Zhang Yali said, but now, the incidence of Crohn’s disease is on the rise and has become a common disease. Nearly 100 patients are being treated in the gastroenterology department of Southern Hospital alone, and 10-20% of the patients with digestive problems received in the outpatient clinic are Crohn’s disease.  Crohn’s disease is a chronic, recurrent and non-specific transmural inflammation of the digestive tract, the cause of which is still unknown and may be related to infection, genetics, humoral immunity and cellular immunity. Crohn’s disease is originally found in North America and prefers young adults between the ages of 15 and 30. Symptoms often present as prolonged abdominal pain, diarrhea, pus and blood stools, and in some children and adolescent patients, growth retardation.  Although it is a type of intestinal ulcer, Crohn’s disease can be misdiagnosed. The appearance of intestinal ulcer disease is the same, but the cause may be completely different, and even the treatment may be completely different. A small intestinal ulcer can often be difficult for doctors who have been practicing for more than 10 years. Some patients with Crohn’s disease mistakenly think they have intestinal obstruction and continue to have recurrences after surgery, and some patients even have intestinal obstruction surgery three times before they find out they have Crohn’s disease.  At present, there is no cure for Crohn’s disease, only drugs to relieve the symptoms, patients need to take drugs for life.  Pregnancy is possible during remission, and vitamin B does not control the disease.  Although Crohn’s disease does not affect fertility, it requires lifelong medication, and patients have to take hormones, immunosuppressants during the active phase of the disease. The drugs for Crohn’s disease remission are risky for pregnancy, especially in the first trimester, said Alex Zhang. He advised Xiaolan to follow her doctor’s instructions during the remission period of Crohn’s disease, choose to reduce or stop the medication and use the remission period to get pregnant.  In response to the popular online post that vitamin B can control inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s, Zhang Yali said the claim is unfounded and that patients must adhere to the principles of standardization and individualization in treatment. The standardization means that the patient must adhere to the medication, the active period must adhere to two or three months before changing the medication, some patients feel better after taking the drug for a period of time to stop the medication, resulting in a relapse of the disease. In addition, after surgery must be reviewed, colonoscopy is the best method of diagnosis and examination, “gastroenterologists can not rely on touch and look to determine the condition of the intestines, often can rely on touch out of the digestive system conditions are generally very serious.” Zhang Yali said. Individualization means that the patient’s medication is different for each individual and at different times, and the patient needs to establish a long-term relationship with the doctor and adjust the dosage under the guidance of a doctor familiar with the condition.  In the past, most of the intestinal obstruction openings were for tuberculous peritonitis, today most of what causes intestinal obstruction is Crohn’s disease, and some young people with recurrent intestinal obstruction have a dramatic increase in the likelihood of getting Crohn’s disease, so they must go to the hospital for a comprehensive examination.