How Dangerous are Migraine Drugs during Pregnancy?

In the past, doctors have encouraged women to avoid certain drugs, including triptans, Divalproex sodium, aspirin and ibuprofen, during pregnancy.  One of the reasons is because of the possibility of birth defects with certain medications.

Sometimes these concerns are well grounded in research.  But quite often they’re more a result of a lack of research.  We’re just not sure what such-and-such a drug will do to the baby.

A new study of 70,000 women set out to find a link between triptans in particular and birth defects.  1535 of the women had used sumatriptan (Imitrex), rizatriptan (Maxalt), zolmitriptan (Zomig), or eletriptan (Relpax) during pregnancy.  The answer – there doesn’t seem to be a link.  Babies born to women taking triptans during pregnancy had no more risk of birth defects than did the general population.

So it seems that for now triptans are a clear choice for pregnant women, though the researchers caution that other independent studies are needed.  However, the researchers did find a few things that were disturbing.

Caution still needed…

The researchers reported a "slight increase" in the risk of excessive bleeding after delivery.  More specifically, the women taking triptans were more likely to develop atonic uterus, a condition where the uterus doesn’t contract properly after delivery – leading to excessive bleeding.

It was also found that the women taking triptans were more likely to lose significant blood during labour and delivery, and more likely to develop pre-eclampsia or eclampsia.  There was also a chance of increased vomiting during pregnancy, and an increased chance of being folate deficient (low in folic acid).

Now after seeing the big long list you may be concerned.  But we’re not talking about a high risk here – though it is a risk that is significant enough to be mentioned.

And remember, migraine itself has its own risks.  Migraine may increase a pregnant woman’s risk of stroke and heart disease, for example.

So every choice has its risks.  During pregnancy, it’s important to take the time to evaluate your migraine symptoms, and find treatment.  Make sure your doctor takes the time to deal with this important aspect of your life – it’s easy to try to ignore it with so many other things going on!

Read more: Migraine drugs don’t up birth defect risk: study

Heads up from: Somebody Heal Me