Methotrexate sickness advice please

[MadameRanevskaya]

I have been taking Methotrexate for three months - this was something I was dreading and had agonised over since I was diagnosed with RA over two years ago. At first I was quite happy,as ,although I felt a bit sick and tired for the first week or so, this cleared up quite quickly. Then after 2 months the nausea reappeared and is getting worse week on week. I take 10mg on a Monday and 5mg of folic acid on Fridays. The nausea is bad on Tuesday and this week Wednesday too! I am just looking for advice or tips and maybe some reassurance that the nausea will go again. I know there is an option to take more folic acid or inject but I am on a low dose and my disease is not fully controlled yet. I am also on sulphasalazine and hydroxychloroquine

Are you sure its not the Hydroxychloroquine?

Im on just that and I was fine to start off with then the pharmacy gave me a different brand and I had constant nausea the whole time I was taking it. Spoke to my RA nurse who asked them to prescribe the original brand and Ive been fine ever since.

Im supposed to be taking MTX as well but we agreed to start me on just the Hydroxychloroquine for now to see how I go (I was terrified of the side effects of the MTX) so know how you feel.

I'm also on a relatively low dose of methotrexate (10mg) plus hydroxychloroquine and from the start was told to take folic acid on the other six days of the week. I've had very few side effects and my disease is largely well-controlled so I would definitely try upping the folic acid rather than putting up with the nausea.

I think upping the folic acid will help if they will prescribe it. I asked at the outset if 5mg once a week was enough and was firmly told it was. I have hospital appointment in ten days so we'll see...

ihearttc I don't think the hydroxychloroquine is responsible for the nausea and I always take the same brand. I'm not sure it does a lot tbh as I added it in before MTX about a year ago and never saw much improvement.

I'm another who says add in more folic acid, speak to your GP if your hospital doc isn't helpful or is harder to get hold of. Oh and if you can stomach it, I found marmite on toast helps with MTX nausea.
I only got serious nausea when my dose went between 25-30mg. It was a fab drug for me before I had DS, when I went back on it though it became less effective and now I have to supplement it with Humira.