People still do not know the pathophysiology of the improvement of rheumatoid arthritis during pregnancy. All we have is theories that are currently being investigated. There is an ameliorating effect in the majority of cases but we need to realize that there are many factors involve as during pregnancy there are a lot of modifications going on in the human body.
Many theories have been proposed for explaining the link between pregnancy and rheumatoid arthritis evolution. The most talked about stands in the effect of hormonal changes experiences. During pregnancy we can notice increased levels of progestin, estrogen and cortisol. Cell mediated immunity is also affected by pregnancy and humoral immunity will be modified together with neutrophil functions.
So far the studies focusing on rheumatoid arthritis and pregnancy do bring good news but this does not mean that by getting pregnant you will see an improvement of the disease. On the other hand, the fact that improvements are visible brings in the thought that something that happens then can aid rheumatoid arthritis patients so this must be investigated further.
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