Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a complicated illness that may necessitate the use of one or more disease-modifying antirheumatic medications (DMARDs). Many DMARDs have teratogenic risk or are newer medicines with little pregnancy safety evidence. This study looked at 20 popular RA medicines, as well as the rate of contraceptive prescribing and counselling practises among women of reproductive age with RA. This was an observational study of women with RA and reproductive potential who were evaluated at an academic rheumatology clinic between April 1, 2014, and March 31, 2016. For analysis, descriptive statistics and univariate logistic regression were employed. In all, 150 women were involved in the study. Methotrexate was the most often used medication, followed by chronic prednisone and hydroxychloroquine. In 64/150 cases, a documented form of contraception was found. The majority of women who utilised contraception used combination oral contraceptives or a levonorgestrel intrauterine device. Nineteen of the 86 patients who were not using contraception got pregnancy planning advice.
The majority of women with RA of reproductive age and capacity did not use contraception. Only a fraction of these individuals who were administered DMARD treatment had documented pregnancy or contraception counselling.
