INTRODUCTION: Most of women that develops inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are in fertile age, concerning doctors and patients to understand this interaction. We evaluated the influence of IBD on fecundity and pregnancy and vice-versa. METHODS: the protocols of patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), from 1984 and 2006, in fertile age, followed at the outpatient clinic were reviewed. Patients were interviewed by the research medical doctor, to complete missing data not found in their protocols. Patients with others colitis, incomplete investigation, not in fertile age or without cognitive capacity were excluded from this study. Preterm delivery, low birth weight, congenital anomalies, stillbirth, miscarriages, types of delivery, disease topography in pregnant patients and drug administration during pregnancy were investigated. The statistic method adopted was the chi-square and Fisher test, with significance level of 5%. No patient refused to participate in this study. RESULTS: 140 pregnancies in 104 patients with IBD were evaluated (UC in 63 and CD in 77 pregnancies). : a reduction of 41.6% in fecundity was observed after beginning of symptoms related to IBD, with influence of the disease in 20.6% (10.3% of patients did not want to have children because of fear related to disease; 6.5% because of medical orientation and 2.2% for poor medical conditions). There was no difference between CD and UC. Most of patients did not want to become pregnant because they already had children, were "underage" or "alone" (53.3%) Most of pregnancies did not altered clinic conditions in UC patients (77.8% / p=0.003). Clinical conditions improved during pregnancies more in CD patients than UC patients (p=0.0007). The incidence of preterm delivery, low birth weight and stillbirth was higher when the whole colon was affected in UC (p < 0.037). The estimated rate of preterm delivery low birth weight was 83.3%[IC 95%: 10.29%; 100.00%]. There was no statistic difference between the disease topography and the fetus alteration in CD (p> 0.6513). In twenty-one and fifteen pregnant women, aminosalicilates and corticosteroids were administered, respectively. In 106 pregnancies, no drugs were administered. There were no higher rates of fetus alteration when aminosalicilates or corticosteroids were administered to mothers with IBD (p> 0.17 and p> 0.1585, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: IBD didn´t have any direct influence on fecundity in most of the patients. Pregnancy influenced positively on CD evolution, independently of drug use. The preterm birth rate was higher in children of mothers with CD. There were higher rates of fetus alteration when the whole colon was affected in mothers with UC. CD influenced the type of delivery only when perianal disease was associated to colonic disease.
Proctocolitis; Crohn disease; Pregnancy; Intestinal diseases; Fertility
