Women Warned Against Taking Popular Painkillers Before and During Pregnancy

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has issued a warning to women to be careful of taking over-the-counter anti-inflammatories before and during pregnancy.

Australia’s drug regulator has warned pregnant women of some popular painkillers with anti-inflammatory properties such as Nurofen or Voltaren as these have been linked to increased risk of miscarriage.

However, the warning also extends to women who are trying to conceive but might not know they are pregnant.

The TGA says it is now speaking with pharmaceutical companies about changing labels on medications to warn women who are trying to conceive.

This comes after current warnings only feature information relating to women who already know they are pregnant, nor are those warnings mandatory for products targeting period pain. The TGA said new data suggests the risk of miscarriage is highest when the medication is taken close to the time of conception.

The TGA has conducted a review into non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) which confirmed the link between miscarriage and those medications aside from aspirin. Popular NSAIDs include ibuprofren, diclofenac, mefenamic acid and naproxen, commonly sold in Australia under the names Nurofen, Voltaren, Ponstan and Naprogesic.

In 2011, a Canadian study of thousands of pregnant women found out that those taking NSAIDs were more than twice as likely to miscarry. Another study which interviewed over 1000 recently pregnant women in 2003, American researchers found the use of NSAIDs increased the risk of miscarriage by 80 percent.

TGA has proposed to include this statement to replace warnings on all oral non-aspirin NSAIDs:

“Do not use if likely to become pregnant, or during the first six months of pregnancy except on doctor’s advice. Do not use at all during the last three months of pregnancy.” 

If agreed to, the change would take place in 2018.

Source: Tenplay.com.au