Safe and Unsafe Acne Drugs During Pregnancy
If you have acne during pregnancy, it is important to pay attention to the drugs you consume, specially if you are breastfeeding, because a lot of it will reach your baby. Normally, it is best to simply avoid all unnecessary drugs but if you must, the best option to treat acne during pregnancy is to only use the following topical treatments and avoid all oral treatments.
The topical acne treatments that may be safe during pregnancy because they have never been shown to cause harm to a fetus in the long time that they have been used are:
* The antibiotic erythromycin based products.
* Benzamycin Gel that contains erythromycin and benzoyl peroxide. Many benzoyl peroxide based products have been used over the counter for years without without any problems. However, you should be careful because it is not know if it passes into maternal milk.
* Azelaic acid which is a natural chemical contained in the Azelex and Finevin prescription products. Azelaic acid should be used with caution if you are breastfeeding because it may passed to the baby. The FDA classifies it as a pregnancy class B drug which means that while animal studies have not shown any harm to result to fetuses, there are no human studies to prove or disprove this finding.
Some topical treatments are considered to be possibly harmful to the baby by the FDA. These include Aczone Gel which may be safe when applied topically but is known to pass into mothers milk if taken orally, clindamycin based prescription products which also pass into human milk and are best avoided, and topical retinoids which cah reach the fetus.
Oral acne treatments should generally be avoided when you are pregnant as already stated but the following should definitely be avoided when you are pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant as they have been shown to cause severe birth defects:
* Anti-androgen hormones which interfere with testosterone production and affect the normal development of male babies.
* Oral Isotrentinoin has been known to cause birth defects and is associated with miscarriage, premature births and infant death.
* Tetracycline along with minocycline and doxycycline may cause birth defects by interfering with bone growth.
You should check your prescription medicines to make sure these drugs are not contained in them. If you are pregnant or planning to get pregnant, you should talk to your doctor about your options with acne treatments and weigh the risks before you decide on a course of treatment.
Jayan writes about yoga and health related issues. If you like this article, please visit his latest diversions at Daybed Bedding Sets and Daybed Covers.
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Tags: pregnancy acne