Nothing indicates that women with ankylosing spondylitis should not be able to have children. Women with the illness have the same biological possibilities to become pregnant as healthy women. Furthermore, the use of protection against pregnancy, e.g. different kinds of contraceptives, can be used normally without any specific restrictions.
In one third of diagnosed women the activity of the illness is unchanged during pregnancy, while one third actually experience an improvement of the condition during the first 5-10 weeks of pregnancy. One third of the women, however, experience increased pain and stiffness during pregnancy. In about two thirds of the women the illness will increase during the first 6 months after child birth. Hereafter the level of the illness will revert to the stable levels as before the pregnancy.
