Arthritis pain med that is also an abortifacient

3/15/12 | POWERSBOOTHEFAN

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

I'm taking a prescription med for arthritis called Methotrexate. Has anyone heard of it or is taking it? From what I read is also used as an abortifacient,which shocked the heck out of me.

[Olog-hai]

The original use of methotrexate was in cancer chemotherapy; this was way back in 1956. AFAICS, its use as an abortifacient in combination with other drugs was not looked into until the 1990s.

[rightly_dividing]

I take it for psoriatic arthritis also. I know that it is an old chemo drug from times past. It does my psoriasis a bit of good; it has stopped progressing in the worst places and cleared up in other places.

[melissa_in_ga]

Methotrexate is used to dissolve an ectopic pregnancy. An EP is a life-threatening condition that will never see 8-12 weeks, much less term.

[Category Four]

Mrs C-4 takes it for Reiter’s and psoriatic. It does some good there, but she and her rheumatologist have to watch carefully, because it can be quite toxic over time to the liver.

[alnick]

Please read up on Dr. Thomas McPherson Brown’s alternative treatment of RA. You can read more about it at roadback.org.

Decide what you will about your treatment, but at least be informed of your options.

Best of luck. :-)

[Doc Savage]

If you’re on metho you are in deep trouble my friend. Most rheums would stay away from this unless you have failed all most all other modalities. Sorry to hear it. I wish you the best. They call them DMARDS. But the side effects are horrible.

[catnipman]

Methotrexate is an extremely potent metabolic poison. Here's just one link of many you should read:

http://www.drugs.com/pro/methotrexate.html

In my opinion, no one should take this drug unless there is no other alternative. Unfortunately, many doctors like to prescribe this drug as a first line drug because it is off-patent and is cheap, cheap, cheap. I assume most of these doctors get some sort of kickback for NOT prescribing the new miracle biologic drugs (http://www.psoriasis-cure-now.org/biologics/) that actually will "cure" psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

If you have medical insurance, it should cover these drugs, and you should demand your doctor prescribe them. Your best bet is to check out the side-effects and claim you're being debilitated by about half of them.

The biologics are not without their own problems, but in my opinion they are FAR better than methotrexate. I have at least two friends using them, one for rhematoid arthritis and one for psoriatic arthritis, and as long as they take their weekly injection, for all practical purposes they are cured.

[Heart of Georgia]

Yes, I was informed that it would cause miscarriage. I take it for RA and was on it for 8 years, 6 pills once per week. Just the thought of swallowing those tiny pills makes my stomach churn and I finally took myself off of it last October.

Ask your rheumy about Remicade or maybe another med like Enbrel would work for you. I’m relying on Remicade alone now and so far it seems to be keeping me walking around, although I was told it works best in conjunction with the methotrexate.

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

I’ve been taking over-the-counter NSAIDS and the rheumatologist prescribed the Methotrexate in order to avoid ulcers.

It sounds like the Metho is worse. =(

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

I have inflammatory arthritis but it isn’t RA.

I looked up various info on this drug and it scared me to death.

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

I have inflammatory arthritis,not RA.

Either way,I hurt quite a bit and it often feels as though someone hit me in my spine,kind of like an elbow drop in wrestling.

I’d rather take a narcotic. I have before so I know what to expect.

I also have Fibromyagia.

I’m batting a thousand,aren’t I. =/

[alnick]

I have been diagnosed w/ an auto-immune disease in the same family as RA, and am looking into treatment with long-term, low-dose antibiotics. It’s helped a lot of people, and the treatment itself is benign.

I hope you find something to give you relief that isn’t toxic. You’re in my prayers.

[catnipman]

“Inflammatory arthritis” isn’t a disease per se, it’s actually a classification of a type of arthritis, i.e., inflammatory vs. non-inflammatory arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis, for example, is in fact a type of inflammatory arthritis.

I copied the following information from a website:

“Doctor’s Responses Archive

Viewer Question

What is inflammatory arthritis? I have just started on Plaquenil. Is this a term used interchangeably with Rheumatoid?
Signed,DL

Doctor’s Answer

Arthritis can be classified as either inflammatory or non-inflammatory. Inflammatory arthritis features inflammatory white blood cells in the joint fluid. Forms of inflammatory arthritis include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus arthritis, gout, and many others. Forms of non-inflammatory arthritis include osteoarthritis, arthritis of thyroid disease, arthritis after injury and many others.

In conclusion, rheumatoid arthritis is one of many forms of inflammatory arthritis.

Thank you for your question.”

I would suggest that if your doctor has merely diagnosed you with “inflammatory arthritis” he’s basically blowing you off and you might consider finding a better doctor. One who would discover exactly which specific inflammatory arthritis you have, since that could help find a more specific and effective treatment.