My wife and I are going to the doctor on Wednesday for her follow up appointment. Prior to the prenancy there was not and affective method of oral birth control available for her to take due to her phenobarbitol. Is anyone successfully taking birth control while on phenobarbitol or some other similar medication? (Or you know the details about someone who is). I’m not asking for medical advice, I just want to get an idea of what the chances are she will be able to get on birth control.
I assume that she can’t take hormonal pills because phenobarb induces their metabolism by the liver. IUD’s (intrauterine devices) are safe and effective birth control. Tell her to try one.
I thought that IUD’s still had a pretty high risk factor associated with them. Has this changed?
IUDs are a lot safer than the pill. I’ve used them most of my life. The only problem I had was heavier periods. Any bad effects are localized to the uterus and are rare. The dangers have been blown out of proportion by our litigious society. The most dangerous problem is a slight increase in ectopic (tubal) pregnancy. I have personally known 3 women who had serious strokes from birth control pills. The hormones in the pill can affect many parts of the body.
All birth control methods have risks. Unless you want to go permanent with sterilization, the IUD is probably one of the safer methods you can choose. The barrier methods (diaphragm, condoms, etc.) have much higher pregnancy rates and the hormonal methods have more life-threatening side effects.
IUDs are usually not recommended for women who have not had children. For some reason, the IUD is much more likely to be expelled. If you have had children, it can be a great option, low maintenance, lower hormones, doesn’t inferfer with breastfeeding as much, cheaper.
No, I’ve never had children, but my wife has 
Maybe we’ll have to look into this more.
I don’t mean to pry, but would you mind if I asked what your wife was taking phenobarbitol for? My understanding was that it was very rarely used nowadays, due to the severity of side effects (cure worse than the problem). Although I seem to recall that it was used in cases of grand mal seisures when other treatment didn’t work…again, sorry for prying, but I’m curious. I did a project on the drug for organic chemistry (mostly trying to figure out how it was made), and so I read a bit about it’s activity and effect, and it just surprised me to see that someone was taking it.
Epilepsy. She doesn’t have any side affects other than mood swings.
I take a combo pill of phenobarb and belladonna. It sounds like a really wild pill, but it’s actually very quiet, and used for intestinal cramping (Chrons).
I’m on depro-provera currently, with no side effects for either.
You weren’t exactly taking a Poll, Mnem, but I take Phenobarb, too, 60mg every night, to control Epilepsy. I’ve found it to be 100% effective, three years no seizure, and has less side effects than the Dilantin or Tegretol I tried before I hit on Pheno.
The only side effects I’ve had are depression, (which may or may not have been caused, or exacerbated by the pheno) and occasional Hand tremors, which, again, I don’t know are caused by pheno. I swear by it.
“Time to take the Damn pill, again.”
Thanks for answering - I just really remember the drug as being so uncommonly prescribed, that it surprised me to see people were on it! Unless…is there a difference between phenobarbitol and phenobarbital? The chemist in me says yes, that one is an alcohol and the other is an aldehyde. Maybe there’s one that’s better than the other? I did my project on the latter, phenobarbitAL, and the list of side effects was absolutely huge, IIRC. ALthough it still might be prescribed…I’m not a doctor.
Sorry for hijacking this thread - I have nothing to add to the OP, but I am interested in the drug in question.