My 14 year old daughter has rheumatoid arthritis

 

Question  My 14 yr.old daughter has been diagonosed with RA, and I have been looking about different side affects of medicines, could any of the meds for RA infertilize my daughter being so young now later in life, and how bad about liver failure? Is hair loss a huge factor, do most people have stomach problems with medicines, ok I know Its more than one question, but there is just so much to know and my head is spinning. My daughter has not yet started any meds, just inflammatories. She will be in the next few weeks.
 
Answer  This must be very distressing news for you.  One of the reasons we developed our website is to provide lots of in-depth information about the treatments available for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and other types of debilitating arthritis.  If you browse through our website, you will see lots of information under the "rheumatoid arthritis" section on the various RA medications and their potential side effects.  But, to briefly answer some of your questions.  No, the RA medications in general do NOT cause infertility.  Methotrexate can cause some liver irritation but, in general, it does not cause liver failure unless the patient has pre-exising liver damage from alcoholism, hepatitis, hemochromatosis,e tc.   Mild hair thinning can be an issue with some of the oral medications but patients never go bald, and I can never see the thinning (even though patients complain of it), so it isn't very dramatic.  Hope this helps.

Last update: 07:41 PM Friday, January 2, 2009

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Joan Bathon, MD

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