Pregnancy outcome in women with rheumatoid arthritis before disease onset.

Pregnancy outcome before disease onset was evaluated for women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and control women as part of a prospective case-control study of newly diagnosed RA. An analysis of women who were ever gravid revealed no statistically significant difference in any adverse pregnancy outcome between RA cases (n = 144) and controls (n = 605) including spontaneous abortions and stillbirths. Thus, in contrast to reports both of an increase of adverse pregnancy outcomes and a decrease in women who subsequently develop RA, we found no evidence for any difference in pregnancy outcome in the RA group.