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They Say: Common Meds Linked to Birth Defects
Pregnant women, beware. This is one of those reports on a study that will make you want to tear your hair out. Why? Because you’re sort of damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Still, here goes:
Researchers looking into antibiotics use during pregnancy have found a link between birth defects and the medicines commonly used to treat urinary tract infections. Oh, but wait. Allowing bacterial infections to go untreated during pregnancy has also been shown to harm the fetus.
The advice?
Don’t avoid antibiotics, just talk to your doctor about your choices. (See? You’re ready to start yanking on hair.)
In summary, the study found that mothers who had children with birth defects were more likely than other mothers to have taken the following during pregnancy: sulfa drugs (brand names include Thiosulfil Forte and Bactrim) and urinary germicides called nitrofurantoins (brand names include Furadantin and Macrobid).
Why are we only now finding this out? Well, these antibiotics have been used for decades to treat UTIs, etc. In fact, their use during pregnancy predates a Food and Drug Administration requirement for rigorous safety testing. In fact, the absence of rigorous testing on all antibiotics taken during pregnancy means that none get the “A” grade — meaning known to be safe medicines to take during pregnancy (Tylenol, for example, gets an “A”).
The study, published in November’s Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, looked at 13,000 mothers from 10 states whose infants had birth defects and 5,000 women who lived in that same region and gave birth to healthy babies. The mothers were interviewed by phone from six weeks to two years after giving birth. The mothers who had taken antibiotics up to one month before getting pregnant through the first three months of pregnancy were considered “exposed.”
The types of birth defects linked to sulfa drugs included rare brain and heart problems, and shortened limbs. Those linked to nitrofurantoins included heart problems and cleft palate. The drugs seemed to double or triple the risk, depending on the defect.
Though researchers — more tearing of hair here — those defects may also have been caused by the infection being treated. Also? Mom’s memory is a weakness in the study, as subjects sometimes couldn’t recall the medicines they had taken.
Did you take antibiotics shortly before or during pregnancy? When the FDA recommends discussing this with your doctor, what do you think? Will you do it? Think this study will have any affect on treatment?
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9 Comments
[...] Soup is still good food … but maybe not from a can. Grrrr. Time to tear out what’s left of your hair! [...]
Many Pantry Staples Contain BPA | Strollerderby commented on Nov 05 09 at 2:45 pmjenny tries too hard commented on Nov 05 09 at 1:21 pmThanks. My hair is officially torn out. I now have a good excuse to buy a cute wig.
Manjari commented on Nov 05 09 at 4:45 pmI had to have IV antibiotics (not for UTI) for two weeks.
Esthermaker commented on Nov 06 09 at 12:56 amI had to take the local antimicrobial, Antinal, while traveling in Egypt this summer, after eating a wedge of the Demon Tomato Of Cairo. I know that’s different from an antibiotic, but I wasn’t able to find any info about it in English once I got home, and I don’t read or speak Arabic.But it was prescribed for me by an Egyptian OB-GYN, in a country that has a lot of kids, so I’m pretty sure we’re OK. Guess I’ll find out when the kid is born.
Sarah commented on Nov 07 09 at 7:21 amI was put on Bactrim while I was nursing. They told me that they it was completely safe and that they prescribed it during pregnancy, implying that it was safe for a nursing mother if it was safe for a pregnant mother. I had a UTI that would not go away with other antibiotics and was getting worse, so I had to take the antibiotics. I decided to stop nursing while taking it (Bactrim) because I read about it on the internet and the side effects and the experiences that other’s had had while on it were terrifying. This article assures me that I made the right decision. If it can hurt the fetus, then I don’t want it coming out through my breastmilk and into my baby.
Laure68 commented on Nov 07 09 at 5:33 pmOne big problem is that is it impossible to perform a clinical trial on pregnant women. It is not only unethical (testing a baby who has no say in the matter) but is a liability for law suits. All that can be performed are retrospective studies, why as you said rely on memory, and are imperfect for many other reasons.
Laure68 commented on Nov 07 09 at 5:34 pmSorry, I meant “which as you say”.
Laura commented on Nov 07 09 at 9:09 pmI’m an OB-GYN resident who hands out Bactrim and Macrobid (nitrofurantoin) like candy to pregnant women. The problem is that there are really only 4 antibiotics that work well against the common bacteria causing UTIs (many other antibiotics don’t work well in the urinary tract even if they work elsewhere). One of them – ciprofloxacin – is part of a whole family of antibiotics that we already avoid in pregnancy because of a documented relatively high risk of tendon defects in babies. The other – cephalexin or Keflex – is safe in pregnancy (so far) but has to be taken 4 times a day, and a relatively high number of UTI bugs are already resistant. So given that the risks of UTI causing preterm labor are much higher than the risk that Bactrim or Macrobid will cause these incredibly rare birth defects (far less than 1/1000 even if the risk is increased from the baseline risk of even farther less than 1/1000), I’ll probably keep prescribing both of these drugs until the pharmaceutical companies come up with a safer alternative.
Jayln commented on Sep 06 11 at 9:15 amMore reputable study results establish a link between anti-seizure (epilepsy) pharmaceuticals. The reason for this is assumed to be the drugs’ interference with the absorption of folic acid. A lack of or improper absorption of folic acid is considered an increased risk factor for giving birth to a baby with Spina Bifida. Source: http://spinabifidainfo.com/antidepressant-birth-defects/
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