WARNING CHECK MEDS 4 PREG SAFETY & dont take symbicort!

[Winzy]

Hi everyone PLEASE READ AND TAKE ACTION ON THIS WARNING!

Please everyone visit your doctor and get your doctor to physically DOUBLE check on their computer database that all of your medications are safe for pregnancy!! DONT TRUST THEIR SAY SO! 3 DRS, MY FS SPECIALIST, MY OB, ALL THE NURSES AT MY CLINIC ALL MISSED THE FACT THAT my asthma medication Symbicort IS A CATEGORY C3 MEDICATION WHICH MEANS ITS NOT SAFE ENOUGH TO TEST ON PREGNANT WOMEN, AND HAS CAUSED MALFORMATIONS AND MISCARRIAGE IN ANIMAL TRIALS! :eek:

I have been taking symbicort for the first 13 weeks of my long awaited IVF pregnancy :hair: and it was prescribed to me again by a Dr who knew I was pregnant just 2 weeks ago! My ob has known, as have the nurses at my FS and 3 doctors at the family practise I go to BUT NONE OF THEM PICKED IT UP!!

Pulmicort is a safe alternative to symbicort if you are on the same medication by the way.

Dont trust what they give you MAKE them check, GET THEM TO PRINT IT OUT FOR YOU AND and READ the fine print BEFORE TAKING ANYTHING PLEASE!!!!

[WorkingClassMum]

** bump ** :hugs:

[MummyLip]

I'm so sorry to hear that your doctors didn't check properly. Incompetent fools. I hope you and bubs are ok xo

[lealea79]

Oh hugs hope all is safe, I had a boil on my boob back in may and I was 6 weeks pregnant the dr prescribed a drug although she new I was pregnant and the label said not to take while pregnant but my dr said it was ok. I was very very hesitant and didn't take the 4a day like it said and only took it for 3 days instead of the 7.. 2 weeks later I had a m/c.. The dr at the hospital said it didn't cause the m/c but to this day I still think it did something....

[surfergal]

I too am on Symbicourt but was changed to Atrovent during pregnancy. I had a similar experience. I had a very bad asthma attack at 19 weeks which incurred due to a severe case of the bronchitis and ended up in the local hospital. The ridiculous doctor there, put me on prednisone tablets. I am a nurse and just knew it didn't seem right so I came home and checked my MIMS (the medication manual that tells you everything about all drugs on the market) and it said not to be taken in pregnancy. The next day i went to my GP and he flipped out and told me to stop it, along with my obs. However everything turned out ok... as I hope everything will be alright for you Winzy. My GP picked up on the symbicourt straight away as once he typed in i was pregnant into my records, it came up on the screen flashing to cease symbicourt..

Winzy... I truly hope everything is ok and so sorry you have been overlooked by your health care professionals with this... its pretty slack on their behalf. :hugs:

[missie_mack]

I don't know if you bothered to read your other thread about the exact same thing
http://www.bubhub.com.au/community/forums/showthread.php?p=5373433#post5373433

BUT Symbicort is not a C3 class drug in Australia (its actually a B3 drug!) and has had no testing done on animals. Don't believe everything you read on a website that fails to reference the study that supposedly had this outcome :rolleyes:

Here is a article from 2010 from the Theraputic Goods Administration in Australia (which approve the use of all drugs in Australia) and it clearly states


Animal studies with respect to the reproductive toxicity of the combination have not been performed Page 65 Public Assessment Report (http://www.tga.gov.au/pmeds/auspar/auspar-symbicort.pdf)

ETA Pulmicort is actually a major component in Symbicort also

[Winzy]

Missie Mack: Thanks for your 2 replies (woops!) No I hadnt read the replies yet been a bit busy and wanting to spread the word to get ppl to check their meds asap. The source you are quoting is reassuring... but the info i am quoting was not from a dodgy website but from the my local GPs - when the doctor clicked on the drugs I was taking on the computer, thats when the info popped up on screen as Category C3 and mentioned the animal testing results in the same warning. I also received the same info when I rang the Health Direct hotline on 1800 022 222 and they said the same thing. Also my pharmacist confirmed this info. Whats going on? Curiouser and curiouser. I am concerned about the pulmicort now too though!!! I think I will ring my doctor and get them to check that again too. He did say to me that it was the long acting reliever in the symbicort that was the issue (apparently) and not the budesonide but Im having a hard time knowing who and which source of info to trust now!! Perhaps the seretide is a better option I might check it out. Thanks for your info!

Surfergal: EEK! It really is freaky isnt it that would have made me so mad. Im glad you checked the MIMS and that everything turned out alright I too am a surfergal with asthma. Where do you hail from? Ever had a freaky asthma in the surf moment? I nearly drowned once and had to be rescued cos I stupidly went surfing by myself for a dawny in fairly big stormy swell and lost my board and got asthma trying to swim in from about 150 m out. Lesson learnt there!

Lealea: I am so sorry to hear of your loss :hugs::hugs: that must have been so hard to go through thanks for sharing your story :hugs:

Mummylip: Thanks for the commiserations!

[Winzy]

Thanks for all of your info shizzle!
Perhaps i got my b3s and c3s mixed up but the fact remains that animal studies have shown harmful results.
I still believe that I should have been made aware of the fact that:
"Studies in animals have shown evidence of an increased occurrence of fetal damage, the significance of which is considered uncertain in humans" (from your info) especially as there is an alternate medication that is category A and has been studied.
I am interested in any adverse info that may be out there on pulmicort, which is the alternative medication recommended by my doctor.
Thanks everyone though for your reassurance - I do agree that it is more important to keep our asthma under control but if this can be done with a safer medication then we deserve to be given the choice.