Stelara & Infections

Hi all, I’ve been on Stelara now for about three years. It took some time to figure out but as these injections are taken every three months and I didn’t always get an infection. I started peeing blood and untreated becomes real nasty real quick. I spoke with my rheumatologist and she said it’s not un heard of but very rare. It seems to be a urinary tract infection and clears up with some aggressive antibiotics. I was wondering if anyone else might have experienced the same?

Cheers
ablast

I haven’t had that experience with Stelara, I thought Cimzia (another biologic) was causing it but it turns out it was unrelated.

What options did your Rheumy give you?

Hi All
I am supposed to start Stelara. Have failed so many. I don’t have much hope but my Rheumatologist wants me to try this new.
Stelara-I have read that many gain weight—a lot . Some say 10 lbs, some 20 and some 35lbs. I don’t think I want to try this. Hair loss, lots of that too.

Anyone that could let me know your experience with Stelara. I would be so grateful.

Thank you

I haven’t experienced hair loss with Stelara specifically- I was losing it before I went on Stelara due to the flare itself.

It has been great for my arthritis. But not so effective for my Crohns, which was the primary thing it was meant to treat.

As it seems it is very often used for Crohns, weight gain experience for those people is likely to be really different than for someone with PsA. Crohns sufferers who go into remission will put on weight quickly, and for some of them, it may be really hard to control due to a mix of a very weird relationship with food, and a sudden change in intake requirements after many years of needing a much higher intake., and restrictions on what you can actually eat. I’m finding this hard right now.

It’s not impossible it would cause a change in weight for PsA either, but it seems much less likely to be a side effect (it wasn’t seen in the clinical studies at all). So I would not worry about it too much, except to keep tabs on it, and both raise it with your Rheumy and actively modify your diet if you note weight gain.

Joint wise I am great, I hope it works for you you too.

Thank you so much for your reply. I forgot I asked this. Very helpful. Many thanks and I wish you well.

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