Birth control

Hi AwesomeAllison! I would also find that suspicious, I'm glad that you and your Rheumy picked up on it. I've not heard of birth control triggering PsA before, but I'm hoping some community members can chime in with their experiences. Were you previously diagnosed with psoriasis at an earlier age? The onset of PsA in many people is around 10 years after their first bout with psoriasis, so I thought maybe those timelines would add up.

Thank you for your question! Warm wishes,
-Victoria, Community Moderator

All of my symptoms kind of just came at once. I started noticing my one toe swelling up along with my ankle in February 2016 at the time I was also taking a kickboxing class so I thought I might have sprained something but the pain never went away and it spread to my knees and hip.

Then in June 2016 I noticed rashes on my elbows (the psoriasis) and my primary Dr was giving me different creams but none of them helped. They sent me to a physical therapist for 2 months for the knee and ankle pain but after nothing was working the PT sent me to an orthopedic surgeon. I was also bruising easily, I would get little blood speckles on my body for bumping into something, I also got super tiny bumps, almost like blisters all over my hands. The psoriasis also spread to the backs of my legs. The orthopedic surgeon automatically told me to go see a rheumatologist, so I was officially diagnosed with PsA in November 2016. Since then i've been taking 10mg of methotrexate along with folic acid every week.

My psoriasis hasn't been much of an issue anymore, every once in a while my elbow will get red and itchy but that's about it. I do have frequent joint pain. I've had steroid shots in my knees and a couple months ago they gave me a slow acting steroid shot in one of my glutes so the methotrexate had some time to catch up in my body since I was having bad hip pain.

But ya, all of this happened shortly after I started the birth control (which i'm still on, it's called Larin FE).

That's kind of disturbing ....I wonder if it's just a hormonal thing that got kicked off by the birth control?

Hello AwesomeAllison 😀 In my experience, hormones play a huge part in my PsA. I pretty much have a flare every time my monthly visitor comes knocking. Which I guess makes me wonder if it isn't so much as the birth control as it might be the relationship between all 3, your hormones, those in birth control, and the inflammation of PsA. I would think that exploring birth control as the "cause" may land you in a chicken/egg scenario. Either way, I hope the methotrexate is helping you get some relief from the pain. -Leanne, Community Moderator