Will I Be Able To Become Pregnant If I Have IBD?

If your condition is under good control, you should expect to have as much chance of getting pregnant as a woman who does not have IBD. However, when the disease is active, it can get in the way of pregnancy.

 

If you are quite sick with a disease flare, you probably don't feel like becoming pregnant — and you may not be able to. Your symptoms and any resulting weight loss can interrupt your normal menstrual cycle, so that and your ovaries may not be releasing an egg every month. If there are no eggs being released, there can be no pregnancy. Fortunately, when you recover from a flare of IBD, the menstrual cycle tends to become more regular again, the ovulation (release of eggs) resumes, and pregnancy is possible.

 

Surgery for IBD or complications of IBD, particularly abscesses from Crohn's disease, can also lead to increased rates of infertility, probably due to scarring around the fallopian tubes that carry the egg from the ovary to the uterus. Complications of surgery, such as a leak or an abscess, increase the rate of fertility problems even further.

 

Although disease flares tend to make becoming pregnant more difficult, it is not a guarantee that you will not become pregnant. If you are sexually active during a disease flare and do not want to be pregnant, you should use appropriate birth control methods.