Fertility and pregnancy in inflammatory bowel disease

Table 1 Questions commonly asked by IBD patients

Sexual health	Will I be able to have normal relationships and a family?
Inheritance	Will my children inherit IBD?
Fertility	Will my fertility be impaired by IBD or its treatment?
Outcome of pregnancy	Will I have a normal, healthy baby?
Disease activity in pregnancy	Will my IBD flare up in pregnancy?
Drug and other treatments	I don’t want to take any drugs during pregnancy.
Breast feeding	Is breast feeding advisable and safe?

Table 2 Influence of pregnancy on IBD activity Meta-analysis data from Reference 17 INACTIVE disease at conception. Likelihood of relapse during pregnancy

	Ulcerative colitis	Crohn’s disease
Number of pregnancies	528	186
Relapse	34%	27%
ACTIVE disease at conception. Pattern of disease activity in pregnancy
	Ulcerative colitis	Crohn’s disease
Number of pregnancies	227	93
Better	27%	34%
No change	24%	32%
Worse	45%	33%