Laura R
Dilantin during pregnancy...?
My mother has epilepsy and she takes dilantin for it. She has been taking dilantin probably for about 30 years now. I am 24 years old. I was talking to her the other day and something about having a bad memory got brought up. And she said she has always heard that taking Dilantin can cause memory loss or memory problems. My memory is horrible, I can not remember so many of the things I have done in my life. I see pictures and I know its me but I just can not remember doing those things or being there. My friends and other family will talk about when they were a little kid all the things they can remember and I just can't. I'm not saying I can't remember anything but I would say I don't remember 80% of what other people say they can remember. When someone will say do you remember when we... Sometimes I can remember and sometimes I can't (I'm talking about just a couple of years ago not even when I was a little child) Anyway my question is if my mother took Dilantin during pregnancy (which she has told me she did-the drs told her the pros would out weigh the cons) could that be the reason my memory is sooo bad?
Answer
Here is what the FDA says about Dilantin use during pregnancy, and its side effects for the baby:
Pregnancy and Dilantin
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lists phenytoin in Pregnancy Category D. This indicates that there is clear evidence of risk to the human fetus, but the benefits may outweigh the risk for pregnant women who have a serious condition that cannot be treated effectively with a safer drug.
The babies of women taking Dilantin have a greater than usual number of major birth defects like cleft lip, cleft palate, and heart malformations. Defects like these occur in 2-3% of all pregnancies but affect 4-7% of the babies of women taking only phenytoin. (This rate is similar to that for women taking other seizure medicines.) There is also an increased chance of minor birth defects such as short fingers and widely spaced eyes. When these babies are re-examined after several years, however, these minor defects are often undetectable or very subtle.
Women taking phenytoin used to be warned about a disorder called "fetal hydantoin syndrome," but this concept is no longer accepted. Phenytoin does not clearly differ from other seizure medicines in the type of defects that may occur.
The risk of defects is higher for women who take more than one AED and for women with a family history of birth defects.
Advise women who are capable of becoming pregnant to take 400 mcg (0.4 mg) of folic acid (folate) daily to help prevent neural tube defects. Women at high risk, such as those with a history of a neural tube defect in a previous pregnancy, should take 4000 mcg (4 mg) daily, beginning before they become pregnant.
About 20% to 35% of women have seizures more often during pregnancy because of changes in hormones or changes in how phenytoin is handled by the body. Check the blood levels of phenytoin regularly during pregnancy so that the dosage can be adjusted as needed.
No studies have been performed to demonstrate the effect of specific AEDs during labor and delivery. Possible causes of seizures include:
failure or inability to take medication
sleep deprivation
hyperventilation
stress
pain.
Some babies born to mothers taking phenytoin have had inadequate blood clotting within the first 24 hours after birth. It is recommended that the mother be given about 10 mg of vitamin K per day during the last month of pregnancy to prevent this problem. The vitamin K given to babies when they are born may be too late to prevent this disorder.
Breast-feeding by mothers taking phenytoin should be safe for healthy, full-term newborns, although a small amount of the medication will appear in the milk. Since 90% of phenytoin is bound to plasma proteins in the mother's blood, the level in breast milk is about 10% of the level in the mother's blood.
Here is what the FDA says about Dilantin use during pregnancy, and its side effects for the baby:
Pregnancy and Dilantin
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lists phenytoin in Pregnancy Category D. This indicates that there is clear evidence of risk to the human fetus, but the benefits may outweigh the risk for pregnant women who have a serious condition that cannot be treated effectively with a safer drug.
The babies of women taking Dilantin have a greater than usual number of major birth defects like cleft lip, cleft palate, and heart malformations. Defects like these occur in 2-3% of all pregnancies but affect 4-7% of the babies of women taking only phenytoin. (This rate is similar to that for women taking other seizure medicines.) There is also an increased chance of minor birth defects such as short fingers and widely spaced eyes. When these babies are re-examined after several years, however, these minor defects are often undetectable or very subtle.
Women taking phenytoin used to be warned about a disorder called "fetal hydantoin syndrome," but this concept is no longer accepted. Phenytoin does not clearly differ from other seizure medicines in the type of defects that may occur.
The risk of defects is higher for women who take more than one AED and for women with a family history of birth defects.
Advise women who are capable of becoming pregnant to take 400 mcg (0.4 mg) of folic acid (folate) daily to help prevent neural tube defects. Women at high risk, such as those with a history of a neural tube defect in a previous pregnancy, should take 4000 mcg (4 mg) daily, beginning before they become pregnant.
About 20% to 35% of women have seizures more often during pregnancy because of changes in hormones or changes in how phenytoin is handled by the body. Check the blood levels of phenytoin regularly during pregnancy so that the dosage can be adjusted as needed.
No studies have been performed to demonstrate the effect of specific AEDs during labor and delivery. Possible causes of seizures include:
failure or inability to take medication
sleep deprivation
hyperventilation
stress
pain.
Some babies born to mothers taking phenytoin have had inadequate blood clotting within the first 24 hours after birth. It is recommended that the mother be given about 10 mg of vitamin K per day during the last month of pregnancy to prevent this problem. The vitamin K given to babies when they are born may be too late to prevent this disorder.
Breast-feeding by mothers taking phenytoin should be safe for healthy, full-term newborns, although a small amount of the medication will appear in the milk. Since 90% of phenytoin is bound to plasma proteins in the mother's blood, the level in breast milk is about 10% of the level in the mother's blood.
Pregnancy?
Livvie
My aunt is 48 yrs old. and she thinks she is pregnant but heres the thing she took 2 pregnancy tests they came up negative but she hasnt got her period in 4 months and she went to the doctor in the summer time and he said she is no where near menopause and anyways when you get menopause you have your periods more and quicker. but she looked like she is pregnant but she did the pregnancy test right and all of that she got expensive pregnancy tests too. please tell me could she be pregnant even though the pregnancy tests are negative? thank you so much.
Answer
ok well i give the same info to all people who are wondering about being pregnant,i do hope that this info i have put together through my nursing school and personal knowledge will help you! this is an honest answer and probably the best answer you will get without being redirected to another web site or simply being told to just take a test like most others will say! This is a personal experience, i was on birth control pills and i had my period for the first 5 months of my pregnancy and every urine test i took came out negative it wasnt until i took a blood test that i found out i was pregnant. and now i am pregnant again and this time i was on the depo shot to avoid pregnancy and has been breastfeeding before i got on it and was never unprotected other than not using a condom, if you have sex without a condom there is ALWAYS a possibility of being pregnant no matter what u do...so here is a list of the top 10 earliest signs of pregnancy!!
10. Tender, swollen breasts
One of the early signs of pregnancy is sensitive, sore breasts caused by increasing levels of hormones. The soreness may feel like an exaggerated version of how your breasts feel before your period. Your discomfort should diminish significantly after the first trimester, as your body adjusts to the hormonal changes.
9. Fatigue
Feeling tired all of a sudden? No, make that exhausted. No one knows for sure what causes early pregnancy fatigue, but it's possible that rapidly increasing levels of the hormone progesterone are contributing to your sleepiness.
You should start to feel more energetic once you hit your second trimester, although fatigue usually returns late in pregnancy when you're carrying around a lot more weight and some of the common discomforts of pregnancy make it more difficult to get a good night's sleep.
8. Implantation bleeding
Some women have a small amount of vaginal bleeding around 11 or 12 days after conception (close to the time you might notice a missed period). The bleeding may be caused by the fertilized egg burrowing into the blood-rich lining of your uterus â a process that starts just six days after fertilization â but no one knows for sure.
The bleeding is very light (appearing as red spotting or pink or reddish-brown staining) and lasts only a day or two. (Let your practitioner know if you notice any bleeding or spotting, particularly if it's accompanied by pain, since this can be a sign of an ectopic pregnancy.)
7. Nausea or vomiting
If you're like most women, morning sickness won't hit until about a month after conception. (A lucky few escape it altogether.) But some women do start to feel queasy a bit earlier. And not just in the morning, either â pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting can be a problem morning, noon, or night.
About half of women with nausea feel complete relief by the beginning of the second trimester. For most others it takes another month or so for the queasiness to ease up.
6. Increased sensitivity to odors
If you're newly pregnant, it's not uncommon to feel repelled by the smell of a bologna sandwich or cup of coffee and for certain aromas to trigger your gag reflex. Though no one knows for sure, this may be a side effect of rapidly increasing amounts of estrogen in your system. You may also find that certain foods you used to enjoy are suddenly completely repulsive to you.
5. Abdominal bloating
Hormonal changes in early pregnancy may leave you feeling bloated, similar to the feeling some women have just before their period arrives. That's why your clothes may feel snugger than usual at the waistline, even early on when your uterus is still quite small.
4. Frequent urination
Shortly after you become pregnant, you may find yourself hurrying to the bathroom all the time. Why? Mostly because during pregnancy the amount of blood and other fluids in your body increases, which leads to extra fluid being processed by your kidneys and ending up in your bladder.
This symptom may start as early as six weeks into your first trimester and continue or worsen as your pregnancy progresses and your growing baby exerts more pressure on your bladder.
3. A missed period
If you're usually pretty regular and your period doesn't arrive on time, you'll probably take a pregnancy test long before you notice any of the above symptoms. But if you're not regular or you're not keeping track of your cycle, nausea and breast tenderness and extra trips to the bathroom may signal pregnancy before you realize you didn't get your period.
2. Your basal body temperature stays high
If you've been charting your basal body temperature and you see that your temperature has stayed elevated for 18 days in a row, you're probably pregnant.
1. The proof: A positive home pregnancy test
In spite of what you might read on the box, many home pregnancy tests are not sensitive enough to detect most pregnancies until about a week after a missed period. So if you decide to take one earlier than that and get a negative result, try again in a few days. there is a site you can go 2 to look at the exact test you took and see what other people got as either a positive or negative, the site is www.peeonastick.com, this way if you need advice on if its positive or neg this will give you a visual.
Once you've gotten a positive result, make an appointment with your practitioner.
ok well i give the same info to all people who are wondering about being pregnant,i do hope that this info i have put together through my nursing school and personal knowledge will help you! this is an honest answer and probably the best answer you will get without being redirected to another web site or simply being told to just take a test like most others will say! This is a personal experience, i was on birth control pills and i had my period for the first 5 months of my pregnancy and every urine test i took came out negative it wasnt until i took a blood test that i found out i was pregnant. and now i am pregnant again and this time i was on the depo shot to avoid pregnancy and has been breastfeeding before i got on it and was never unprotected other than not using a condom, if you have sex without a condom there is ALWAYS a possibility of being pregnant no matter what u do...so here is a list of the top 10 earliest signs of pregnancy!!
10. Tender, swollen breasts
One of the early signs of pregnancy is sensitive, sore breasts caused by increasing levels of hormones. The soreness may feel like an exaggerated version of how your breasts feel before your period. Your discomfort should diminish significantly after the first trimester, as your body adjusts to the hormonal changes.
9. Fatigue
Feeling tired all of a sudden? No, make that exhausted. No one knows for sure what causes early pregnancy fatigue, but it's possible that rapidly increasing levels of the hormone progesterone are contributing to your sleepiness.
You should start to feel more energetic once you hit your second trimester, although fatigue usually returns late in pregnancy when you're carrying around a lot more weight and some of the common discomforts of pregnancy make it more difficult to get a good night's sleep.
8. Implantation bleeding
Some women have a small amount of vaginal bleeding around 11 or 12 days after conception (close to the time you might notice a missed period). The bleeding may be caused by the fertilized egg burrowing into the blood-rich lining of your uterus â a process that starts just six days after fertilization â but no one knows for sure.
The bleeding is very light (appearing as red spotting or pink or reddish-brown staining) and lasts only a day or two. (Let your practitioner know if you notice any bleeding or spotting, particularly if it's accompanied by pain, since this can be a sign of an ectopic pregnancy.)
7. Nausea or vomiting
If you're like most women, morning sickness won't hit until about a month after conception. (A lucky few escape it altogether.) But some women do start to feel queasy a bit earlier. And not just in the morning, either â pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting can be a problem morning, noon, or night.
About half of women with nausea feel complete relief by the beginning of the second trimester. For most others it takes another month or so for the queasiness to ease up.
6. Increased sensitivity to odors
If you're newly pregnant, it's not uncommon to feel repelled by the smell of a bologna sandwich or cup of coffee and for certain aromas to trigger your gag reflex. Though no one knows for sure, this may be a side effect of rapidly increasing amounts of estrogen in your system. You may also find that certain foods you used to enjoy are suddenly completely repulsive to you.
5. Abdominal bloating
Hormonal changes in early pregnancy may leave you feeling bloated, similar to the feeling some women have just before their period arrives. That's why your clothes may feel snugger than usual at the waistline, even early on when your uterus is still quite small.
4. Frequent urination
Shortly after you become pregnant, you may find yourself hurrying to the bathroom all the time. Why? Mostly because during pregnancy the amount of blood and other fluids in your body increases, which leads to extra fluid being processed by your kidneys and ending up in your bladder.
This symptom may start as early as six weeks into your first trimester and continue or worsen as your pregnancy progresses and your growing baby exerts more pressure on your bladder.
3. A missed period
If you're usually pretty regular and your period doesn't arrive on time, you'll probably take a pregnancy test long before you notice any of the above symptoms. But if you're not regular or you're not keeping track of your cycle, nausea and breast tenderness and extra trips to the bathroom may signal pregnancy before you realize you didn't get your period.
2. Your basal body temperature stays high
If you've been charting your basal body temperature and you see that your temperature has stayed elevated for 18 days in a row, you're probably pregnant.
1. The proof: A positive home pregnancy test
In spite of what you might read on the box, many home pregnancy tests are not sensitive enough to detect most pregnancies until about a week after a missed period. So if you decide to take one earlier than that and get a negative result, try again in a few days. there is a site you can go 2 to look at the exact test you took and see what other people got as either a positive or negative, the site is www.peeonastick.com, this way if you need advice on if its positive or neg this will give you a visual.
Once you've gotten a positive result, make an appointment with your practitioner.
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Title Post: Dilantin during pregnancy...?
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Rating: 95% based on 95 ratings. 4.8 user reviews.
Author: Unknown
Thanks To Visiting My Blog
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