Posted by ShannonC on October 3, 2004, at 8:31:13
In reply to Effexor and pregnancy, posted by ChristinaG on October 23, 2000, at 16:10:39
I was up to 275 mg of Effexor XR when I found out I was pregnant. My doctor took me off the medication because there haven't been enough tests proving that it does not cause harm to the baby, yet. Here's a link to what they DO know: http://www.perinatology.com/exposures/Drugs/Venlafaxine.htm ... If the only thing stopping you from switching to a safer drug (my doctor put me on Sertraline) is that you are scared of the withdrawal effects, I will tell you, my dear, that the pregnancy effects can MORE than mask the withdrawal effects. About 50% of pregnant women experience nausea, vomiting, fatigue, headaches, and so on and so forth, and I was and still am among the lucky 50% that experience(d) this. So, even though I quit my Effexor XR cold turkey, I was already too nauseous to care. I would recommend getting a "second opinion" on whether you should keep using Effexor XR. I can understand that your doctor feels your depression is too severe to warrant taking you off of Effexor, but I do feel that with proper supervision (IF you have not already gone through all the other medications and found they were NOT succesful), you may get more PEACE OF MIND switching to a drug that you can rest assured is not potentially harming the baby. This is all in my humble opinion, though, and only applies if you are planning on continuing the pregnancy. If you are planning to terminate the pregnancy, then there is no problem with you staying on the Effexor.
poster:ShannonC
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041002/msgs/398483.html