What are the family planning concerns of women and men with IBD?

In individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), men are less afraid than women when it comes to care- and drug-related concerns about family planning, reports a prospective study.

A self-completed cross-sectional online questionnaire was answered by 951 female and male IBD patients aged >18 years throughout Brazil in 2019 for 10 weeks. Of the completed questionnaires, 761 (80 percent) were usable.

Majority of the respondents were female (76.34 percent), of whom 76.38 percent aged between 18 and 38 years, 57.29 percent had Crohn’s disease (CD), 38.54 percent had ulcerative colitis (UC), and 4.17 percent had indeterminate colitis (IC). Of the male respondents (23.66 percent), 78.2 percent were between 18 and 38 years old, 69.67 percent had CD, 27.96 percent had UC, and 2.37 percent had IC.

Among women, the biggest concerns about family planning were as follows: fear of having a risky/complicated pregnancy due to illness (62.50 percent), fear of medication causing harm to baby (58.27 percent), fear of illness harming the baby (44.49 percent), fear of passing the disease to the baby (38.60 percent), fear of not being able to take care of the baby because of the disease (36.76 percent), and fear of failing to get pregnant due to illness (36.76 percent).

On the other hand, the biggest family planning concerns among men were as follows: fear of not being able to take care of the baby because of the disease (39.42 percent), fear of passing the disease to the baby (28.85 percent), “other” concerns (22.60 percent), fear of illness harming the baby (19.71 percent), fear of medication causing harm to the baby (12.02 percent), fear of not being able to get pregnant due to illness (11.54 percent), and fear of partner having a risky/complicated pregnancy due to illness (7.69 percent).

“IBD predominantly affects young and reproductive-age patients,” the authors said.