Arthritis Support Group

When I first got RA I tried going off my birth control pill to see if it made a difference. I was flaring badly, so it's hard to say but I think it made me worse.

I'm on the pill now and every time I get my period, my RA gets a little worse, sometimes putting me in a flare but it's pretty controlled now so it almost never happens from just my period. But the thing is, when I'm on my period, that's the week you don't take any pills. Now I know your period makes your immune system lower, so it could be just that.

But I do believe, in my own opinion and from research that both estrogen and progesterone are anti-inflammatories.

Great question!

I met a man who specialized in both sex therapy and also counselling women with Lupus. He strongly believed in estrogen being a factor in inflammatory conditions. He thought that there should be more studies done on it and also believed it was somehow sexist that it had not been researched. He thought that if Lupus and other auto immune diseases were a man's disease there would be a ton more research.

Anyway thanks for your input. I hadn't heard that progesterone was an anti inflammatory too.

www.RAMSwebsite.Net
I think that one subset may be estriol related. Estriol is processed in the liver from estrogen. If you are not producing the estrogen or the liver can not process it you will not have enough estriol. This hormone among other things is a transporter protein to bring vitamins into the body. Thus causing a malabsorption or metabolism issue that starves cells and causes tissue damage.

MS and RA are related diseases. You can see the research links on the "Supporting Data" link on the above website.

Best Wishes,
EP

Some pain medication can cause for some birth controls not to work.

There isn't a single clinical trial that documents the evidence of such a thing.

Theirs a birth control here called the rod that is planted just uner the skin and if you take gabapention it interacts with it and causes it not to work.