Medication is a great thing, and can be fantastic for your wellness, but there are some medications that can have an impact on your developing pregnancy. Your sexual and reproductive system is a fantastically intricate system, and there are many ways that medications can improve your wellbeing, but when it comes to pregnancy, you can never be too careful.
First of all, if you take any kind of regular medication for any pre-existing health condition then it is really important to talk to your medical professional before you try to conceive, to find out what kind of effect your medication could have on a developing foetus. It may be that you need to switch to a different kind of medication before you fall pregnant, or even stop your medication altogether. Also, some medications can interfere with your ability to fall pregnant, so it’s always worth finding out what the facts are before you rush into anything.
The FDA has a system that awards different gradings to medication based on their efficacy in pregnancy. A grade A shows that there is no risk, a grade B shows that there is no evidence of risk, a grade C means that a risk cannot be ruled out, a grade D means that there is evidence of a risk, a grade X means that you must not use the drug during your pregnancy.
Many medications fall into category C – meaning that a risk cannot be ruled out – and that is simply because many drugs are not tested on pregnant women, because it is not ethical to do medical studies on pregnant women.
It can be a challenge, however, to balance the needs of the mother with the needs of the baby. There may be times when the health of the mother means that the drug has to be taken, regardless of what it may mean for the foetus.
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