Got a blood test and chest x ray in part to check for RA yesterday. Would explain a lot of things if I have it, but it would still suck. Sounds like all the medication options have nasty side effects. If I do have RA, the symptoms are relatively mild, and I'm hoping I won't need those meds for now.
I have RA, it never showed up on the blood tests but it's showing up in my joints. My insurance gives me a hard time because of this. I don't have enough swelling to qualify and I'm allergic to NSAIDS and my insurance refuses to cover any other medication.
My doctor did ask me if I wanted to have a family because once the swelling damage does start, the medications I'm going to have to take will make that impossible.
RA ladies, you need to take the meds. There really isn't a "not that bad". It's a progressive, degenerative disease. You may feel fine but the disease is slowly destroying your body without medication. Once you do start to feel bad, it's too late, you will have severe damage at that point, among other issues.
Also you can still have perfectly healthy children on many RA meds, make sure you go over it with your doctor.
To be honest, if your doctor is telling you, a woman of childbearing age, that she has to take a med that makes pregnancies non-viable, find a new fucking doctor a.s.a.p. Those drugs should be last resort drugs for women of childbearing age. This is my doctor's opinion, not my own, btw.
If your doctor is telling you to take leflunomide/methotrexate when they know you may want a family, they are a shit doctor. Unfortunately I've run into a few of those over the years.
My #1 tip is ask your doctor about getting on a biologic ASAP, don't fuck around with taking exclusively DMARDs. The main issue I see is that many doctors want to start you on those meds, some of which are the ones you shouldn't get pregnant taking. But they don't work as well as the biologics, the biologics are literally life changing in a positive way. Doctors hesitate to put people on biologics because they are all injectables and most people are afraid of needles, also they are very expensive and it is a lot more work for the doctor to get insurance to approve them.
Although I'll be real, having RA you will get over any fear of needles real quick, from the frequent bloodwork.
I wish I could go back in time and tell my first doctor to start me on a biologic right away, not fuck around with DMARDs. Which by the way my side effects on those were about 1000x worse than anything I've had with biologics.
I've been diagnosed with RA since I was 20 and I'm a lot older than that now, if anybody has any questions/fears feel free to PM me.