THE EFFECTS OF CHRONIC ILL HEALTH AND TREATMENT WITH SULFASALAZINE ONFERTILITY AMONGST MEN AND WOMEN WITH INFLAMMATORY BOWEL-DISEASE IN LEICESTERSHIRE

The aims of the study were to ascertain whether patients have similar a fertility rate to the background population in Leicestershire and wh ether they have a similar rate of congenital malformations compared to the background population in Leicestershire. Over 1400 patients were invided to participate with an overall response rate of 81% after thre e successive mailings. The response rate LI as similar for both sexes and between the disease groups, The crude infertility rate for the gro up was 21%. The mean number of children for the whole group was 1.7 +/ - 1.3 but both men and women with Crohn's disease had significantly le ss children than would be expected, (men with Crohn's disease 1.5, wom en with Crohn's disease 1.2). There were 39 children (2% of overall bi rths) with congenital abnormalities reported by patients with inflamma tory tory bowel disease and in 29 cases the parents reported taking su lphasalazine (Table 3). Although this figure compares well with the 1. 8% reported congenital abnormality rate for Leicestershire within the patient group in this study congenital malformations were significantl y related to sulphasalazine use, z = 4.3, P < 0.0001. In conclusion su lphasalazine not only as causes morphological abnormalities in spermat ozoa but may increase the chances of having congenitally abnormal offs pring amongst men with IBD. The effects of other 5-aminosalacylic acid s have yet to be studied in detail.