Tramadol during pregnancy

[sultrysnow]

I see this is an old post however I'm in the SAME EXACT position you were in and I'm desperately trying to find info and can't. I was wondering if you could tell me the outcome of Tramadol during pregnancy. I currently am 5 weeks pregnant and am taking 4 a day. If I try and even cut down by a half I suffer from depression and withdrawl. Was your lil one healthy? Please help if you can. The obsession is killing me. Thank you so much!

[HotI]

Hi

There is a really nice man at the Drug Info Centre in Melbourne called Rodney Whyte who can give information on medications and pregnancy/breastfeeding. His phone number is (03) 95942361 mon-fri 9am-5pm. Even if you are interstate, It is definately worth giving him a call.

It is really hard trying to balance your health needs and the needs of the baby, and you need accurate information so you can make an informed decision. Please call him. He had to do some research for my medications but got back to me when he had the info.

K

[sultrysnow]

Kate, Thank you so much for this phone number. (I just posted a long message and I clicked the back arrow before posting it so if for some reason there are 2 posts it's because of this). Anyway, I WILL call this number as soon as I can pull my pregnant self together. It will be a HUGE RELIEF just to talk to someone about it instead of just living in denial. Thank you again and best of luck to you )
Jaime

[Footsteps]

sorry to hijack, very similar question but its morphine tab and oramorph. how would it affect pregnancy and birth etc. (suffer full severe abdo adhesions)...actually does how a pergnancy would be affected by adhesions??
sorry to highjack huni...im in the uk so a bit different and not pregnant yet.
thank you
rach xxxx

[HotI]

Hi Rach

If you are not pregnant yet, you actually have a few more options you can go through.

My GP wasn't sure about my meds so i got a referral to an obstetrician at a major hospital. I had an appt and explained my circumstances and asked all my questions, and then he went away and researched and i met up with him again and he explained my options.

You could ask for a referral to an obstetrician who may deal with high risk pregnancies (just because they may have seen lots of different circumstances). They should be able to also give you advice on how pregnancy will affect your condition.

You might find your meds are fine. You might find there is limited info and they can't tell you the effects. Or they might suggest you change medications- this is a lot easier to do before you get pregnant.

take care,

k

[Nindy]

Hi Sultrysnow!

Firstly, congrats on your pregnancy. I understand how stressed you are now that you have this precious little bundle and still need to be taking tramadol.

Since my last post, we miscarried our baby and we're still doing IVF. In my research in tramadol in pregnancy, 1% of the dose you take crosses the placenta. As I understand it, the placenta starts functioning at about 8 weeks of pregnancy, so at the moment I doubt your baby would be getting anything. After that, it would get a tiny dose. So if you're taking 400mg a day, your baby will be getting 4mg, which I don't consider significant. In lab studies in rats, they found extremely high doses of tramadol causes such things as skeletal ossification but no major malformations in their babies, but the doses they did their tests on were absolutely huge, nowhere near what the average human takes.

I have had discussions with both my rheumatologist and my IVF obstetrician/gynaecologist. They have both said that they can think of far worse drugs to take in pregnancy and if you need to take it for pain relief, then you must do so. It is a matter of weighing up the benefits against the risks and in light of chronic pain, which I have and sounds like you struggle with as well, the only option we have is to continue with the medication you need to function. Personally I feel a mother who smokes throughout her pregnancy does far more damage than taking tramadol. People will make you feel guilty and tell you that you shouldn't take anything stronger than panadol, but they don't understand chronic pain. In reality, there has not been enough research conducted into tramadol in pregnancy to confirm or deny concerns. It is totally unknown. So to keep themselves out of trouble GPs will take the safe option and tell you not to take it. As a registered nurse, I feel I'm relatively well informed and have done research into it. We're currently doing another IVF attempt, and no I don't feel brilliant about taking tramadol still. But what other option do we have? You need to make the decision that sits well with you, but hope the above information helps.

In pregnancy, I couldn't find any GP who was willing to write me a script for tramadol. I ended up ordering it from the USA online, where you don't need a script for it.

Please feel free to write, I totally understand where you're coming from. Take care.

Nindy

[shiraz76]

Hi,

My Name is Shirani and i have JCA, Juvenile Chronic Arthritis, but also osteoarthritis. I have had it since I was 3 and I am now 32. I have it quite badly and am on a lot of medication. I am currently 4 and a half weeks pregnant. I too, am taking tramadol and feel funny about taking it. The specialist obstetrician i have been seeing said it would be better to take panadeine forte if I could but if I had to take it I had to. Your post made me feel better as not that much goes into the placenta. It is nice to know there are other women out there in the same situation as me. I am making an appointment to see the doctor again soon so I'll ask about taking it again. Its tricky though as I am also on other medication and it might be better to reduce that instead. Is anyone taking cortisone?


Shirani

[sultrysnow]

Nindy, I replied to a different post and wasn't sure if you'd recieve notification that I'd responded to your post BUT I DID! I thanked you SO MUCH! If you can navigate your way back check it out. I'm forum-dillusional (NO idea how to work this thing) Thank you again <3