There is a long story behind this but I’ll skip it: I saw an ob-gyn today that is not my primary-care doctor and upon hearing about my bouts with morning sickness (better known as “all-day sickness”) she prescribed some medication.
Since my friend scared the bejeesus out of me by telling me that Thalidomide was prescribed for morning sickness (I knew about that drug and its effects, I didn’t know what it was for) I am not too fond of the idea of taking any unnecessary medication. I checked the active ingredient of the medication my doctor prescribed on the net and found a French site that said that it shouldn’t be taken by pregnant women.
While I write this post, trying not to throw up on the keypad, I am really tempted to try this stuff, but will not until I run it with my doctor on Tuesday. My symptoms consist largely of awfully strong nausea without much of actual vomiting, so the only concern is for my confort. Anyways, I am wondering, are pregnant women prescribed anything for nausea?
Nothing in the US is approved for HEG. Bendectin was, but got pulled due to liability fears in the early 80’s. Many claimed the drug (which did have a documented benefit of reducing nausea and vomiting) caused birth defects, and people sued. A lot. Despite the fact that no credible study showed any link, the drug company pulled it off the US market, as the profit from selling it in the US would never outweigh the costs of defending it. It is still available in Europe and elsewhere.
I’d like to add a quick side note about Thalidomide that I learned in my organic chemistry class. When the drug was initially offered, it came with both enantiomers (enantiomers are molecules that are non-superimposible mirror images of each other). The left handed Thalidomide works quite well to combat morning sickness, however the right handed molecule is what causes the birth defects. Believe it or not, but the exact same drug has come back and is being used again. Drug manufacturers go to painstaking measures to ensure only the left-handed molecules make it through, of course.
But it’s not used for nausea is it? From what i understand, it’s only used for cancer. And they make a person sign papers saying they are not pregnant, are on birth control, and will not get pregnant while on the medication. I think. I read that a couple of years ago.
Oh yeah I forgot about that part. :smack: They don’t use it for morning sickness anymore, you’re right. You’re right about signing waivers and pregnancy checks and all that too.
Bushwa. The enantiomers convert to each other in vivo, and pregnant (or potentially pregnant) women must not take thalidomide, ever. The current product is a racemic mixture, as it was in the 1950s. It is NOT, and never again will be, used for morning sickness. It is, in fact, not sold at all – it is being studied as an antineoplastic agent, in the treatment of leprosy symptoms, in HIV-related symptoms, for advanced multiple myeloma, prostate cancer, glioblastoma, and Crohn’s disease.
Pregnant people often suffer through “side effects” of pregnancy since they, understandably, don’t want to take “unnecessary” medications. That being side, sickness often places more stress on a fetus than taking medicine. The question, of course, is what is generally safe – drug companies are generally no longer willing to do trials on pregnant patients for fear of another thalidomide.
In Canada, nausea and vomiting during pregnancy are often treated with Diclectin, Stemetil or Gravol. All of these medicines are given “B” grades by several sources including the very useful website www.motherisk.org (if this is wrong, do a search, it may have two r’s or a different end). A “B” grade for medication means it is considered generally safe. All of these medications are widely used by OB-GYNs in Canada, and are considered quite safe (used hundreds of thousands of time in practice with minimal problems).
Severe hyperemesis gravidarum often requires intravenous fluid and hospitalization. Talk with your OB-GYN about the above medicines. I use them fairly frequently. I’d bet they are very widely used in the US too. Maybe the FDA doesn’t approve any medicine in pregnancy which isn’t an “A” (controlled studies show safety) but these medicines are few and far between, since no one does these studies.
Many pregnant women put up with headaches and pain instead of taking a Tylenol, which is also quite safe in small doses. I use this a lot as well.
*** Your individual circumstances may vary – so take Internet advice with a grain of salt and talk to doctors who know your situation.
Try to stay still when you feel nauseated until the worst of it passes. Sit back and close your eyes and take comfort in the fact that you can vomit on anyone who bothers you.
Ginger may help, ginger ale, candied ginger, or just a bit of fresh ginger. It doesn’t have to be much, but it can help.
Mint does wonders for getting that taste out of your mouth.
I found a lemon and mint tea with sugar helped. I like Bigelow’s I love lemon.
Avoid honey. The fields that honeybees gather nectar from may have weeds like tansy that have things you don’t want to be ingesting. Some of those things could even make you more nauseated or be dangerous.
Small meals when you can deal with them, sip water when ever you can. Don’t let your stomach get completely empty or very full.
I had all day sickness until I gave birth, but fortunately I did not have it bad as some do.
When I was pregnant I had a 3-week spell of throwing up constantly. I usually didn’t even keep fluids down. Oddly enough, I didn’t have any nausea, just ambush vomiting.
My doctor gave me Phenergan, which didn’t do anything for me because Phenergan is for nausea; it doesn’t keep you from throwing up. All it did to me was knock me out.
What did your doctor prescribe you, anyway?
PS: Sounds like you’re having a girl to me.
My wife has had terrible morning sickness on all three of her pregnancies (#3 is on the way, w00t!).
Her OB-GYN prescribed her Zofran, which I think is normally used for nausea in chemo patients. It basically blocks the brain’s “nausea” signals. It works fabulously. Good thing my insurance covered the prescription, because it would’ve cost something like $900 for just a few pills. No, I didn’t type too many zeros.
Zofran/ondansetron is a 5-HT[sub]3[/sub] antagonist; it’s been noted that in patients getting chemo, serotonin secretion increases all over, including portions of the brain involved in emesis. There are new anti-emetic drugs targeting substance P receptors in development, which is downstream of 5-HT[sub]3[/sub]-mediated signaling, depending on where those signals are being sent. Interestingly, these substance-P antagonists have also been tested as antidepressants, and this research is ongoing.
I dunno about you, but I am very nervous about the idea of exposing a developing fetus to anything having a potent impact on central neurotransmission, as ondansetron does. For example, there have been a recent, quite disturbing report about a study on mice exposed prenatally to SSRIs, indicating they may have a significantly increased risk of anxiety and “depression” (as defined in mouse models) as they get older. As we saw most shockingly with Vioxx, just because the drug is called “safe” doesn’t mean it is, even when indicated. Most drugs are only screened for rather obvious signs of teratogenicity, so “safe” has an especially uncertain meaning when it comes to prenatal exposure; this appears to be especially true when one considers problems that may take years to manifest.
I would have replied earlier, but I am spending the evening on my sofa like a beached whale.
Thanks all for your ideas. I’m done with crackers already, I’ve eaten so many that I find them repugnant now. In fact, every day I have to do an inventory of all things edible to see which I don’t find repugnant that day.
I’ve been seasick and this is the closest thing to it. And I am burping and farting more than my husband when he thinks I am not around. :eek: At this point I don’t think I will be screaming “encore!” in 7.5 months.
BTW, the prescription is for “Meclizina clorhidrato” in Spanish. Since I can’t translate chemical substances into English (only the obvious ones) the closest I got was this in French.
Around the time I had my daughter some study from one of those nordic countries (Finland?) came out and concluded that women who are carrying girls are more likely to have morning sickness than those carrying boys. (The reason why is escaping me at the moment.)
There are countless exceptions, IANAD, etc.
To really tell if you’re having a girl, I’d have to see a picture of you
I don’t know what medication she was given, but my sister developed such awful nausea with her second pregnancy that she couldn’t even keep liquids down and was hospitalized for dehydration as a result. So by all means make sure that your fluid intake stays up. And if you’re really concerned about the medication your doctor prescribed, why not call him/her and talk about your concerns?
My wife’s goy it pretty bad right now but not to a debilitating level. Reducing odors seems to be helpful, eating cold food rather than hot (not as much odor) and she told me eating ginger snaps helped during her first pregnancy.
14 years ago when I was pregnant with my first, my doctor told me to take a Unisom (OTC sleeping pill) and a vitamin B-6 before going to bed at night. I vaguely recall it helping somewhat. I don’t know if this is still recommended or not.
With my second, I was so nauseous all the time that I only gained 9 pounds, and my baby weighed 8’13. I actually left the hospital weighing less than I did when I got pregnant! I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, but in that situation the nausea really worked for me.
Also, pressing the inside of my wrist seems to help nausea for me. Good luck, I know it’s a crummy feeling! Just don’t let your stomache get empty if you can help it, that seems to make it a whole lot worse.
I think you’ve been given Antivert. It’s used to treat motion sickness and vertigo, and obviously can be used for morning sickness. There are concerns though because rats, when treated with very high doses, displayed signs of birth defects. So basically it seems like it’s only used in pregnancy when it’s really necessary.
Meclizine is sold as Antivert (as said) or Bonamine (Bonine in the US). According to the Canadian drug guide, notwithstanding problems in rats AT FIFTY TIMES THE HUMAN DOSE, “Epidemiological studies with meclizine in women experiencing nausea and vomiting has revealed no evidence of a teratogenic effect with this drug”. It seems a reasonable choice.
Many good studies on nausea and vomiting can be found here:
