Birth defects - What medication are you taking?
Every day millions of prescriptions are filled in the US. Some of these are for women of childbearing age, usually defined as between 15 and 45 years. These are the years during which most pregnancies occur. It is common practice to recommend effective contraception for women of childbearing age when prescribing medication that has the potential to cause birth defects - or is it?
A recent study has suggested that some women are taking medication prescribed by their doctor that has the potential to cause birth defects (ie they are teratogenic) without being counselled on the need for contraception while taking the drugs. About 1/6 of the women studied received potentially teratogenic drugs and about half of these received no contraceptive advice. And yet these women were just as likely to get pregnant as the women who took safer drugs. The study was carried out with 488,000 women over the course of a year. Just imagine how many women that works out to be if you consider that this is happening in the whole of the United States!
Half of the pregnancies in the US are unplanned, so even if you’re not planning a pregnancy you are still at risk. If you’re using birth control, you need to make sure it’s effective. If you are between 15 and 45 years old, you need to ask the doctor if your prescription is associated with any risk of birth defects. If you are not on and do not wish to use contraception or maybe you’re trying to get pregnant, your doctor may be able to prescribe a safer alternative.
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