?Do the Commonly Used Contraceptive Methods Have a Role on the Activity of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

heumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common autoimmune diseases of connective tissue and is considered as a rheumatic disease. Women, especially in the third to the fifth decades of life, are affected by RA 3 times more than men (Amini et al., 2018) And because most of these women are in the reproductive age and they have to be on a teratogenic drugs for a long periods, so there is a big need to clarify the contraceptive method that should be used by women with rheumatic diseases and other than the use of contraceptives carry risks or not on the RA activity and severity (Katherine et al., 2020). Therefore, the objective of this study is to explore the association of the RA activity and the commonly used female contraceptive methods in Egypt. We aim to fill in the gaps in knowledge about the insights in choices of the best contraceptive methods (that can be used by the female RA patients) which can improve activity score of the disease or at least does not cause further deterioration. Fifty RA female patients were enrolled and divided into two groups; contraception users (40 patients), who was further subdivided into 15 patients who are IUD users, 13 oral contraceptives users and 12 injectables users, and non-contraception users (10 patients). The study was performed among female pat