Actos while pregnant

msvon · 11-25-2005, 08:09 PM

I was just wondering if anyone has heard of taking Actos while pregnant. I take actos and it has helped tremendously with regulating AF and I even got pregnant. My doc took me off Actos and put me on Glucophage because there were no studies of pregnant women on Actos. I ended up miscarrying and I think it was because I didn't have enough progesterone and the Glucophage didn't seem to help raise it at all and I think the Actos would have because low progesterone was the reason I wasn't getting AF in the first place. I know that no doctor in their right mind would let me stay on Actos if I were to become pregnant again unless there were some studies done somewhere.

longing4abab · 12-23-2005, 08:24 AM

I asked one of the nurses at work the other day about this and it is a class C preg drug which text book wise means Pioglitazone is in the FDA pregnancy category C. This means that it is not known whether pioglitazone will be harmful to an unborn baby. Generally, insulin is the drug of choice for controlling diabetes during pregnancy. Do not take pioglitazone without first talking to your doctor if you are pregnant or could become pregnant during treatment.

i got that from http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz...=Actos&func=lf
if you have anymore questions

hope this helps
Mandie

IsabelleGrace · 12-24-2005, 05:34 AM

I concur. Please check with your doctor.

RunnerDuck · 12-28-2005, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by msvon

I think the Actos would have because low progesterone was the reason I wasn't getting AF in the first place.

?

Do you mean to say that you were ovulating and not getting AF?

The reason we with PCOS don't get AF is because we don't ovulate. After you ovulate, your ovaries begin producing progesterone - which in a nutshell tells your body to hold on to whatever is in your uterus. After 2 weeks or so if you aren't pregnant, production stops and the drop in progesterone results in a shed of the lining (period).

Generally speaking, if you ovulate, you will have a period - unless you are pregnant. I have read of rare, rare, rare cases where ovulation does not result in enough progesterone to bring on a period... but i would think if your ovulation was good enough to result in a pregnancy, it was good enough to bring on a period. Not necassarily to sustain a pregnancy... but good enough to bring on a period.

For some reason, metformin helps cysters, when they ovulate, to produce more progesterone, which reduces the risk of miscarriage. The miscarriage risk reduction with metformin has been proven pretty conclusively.

But that said, metformin doesn't work for all women to bring on ovulation... so I guess it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume it doesn't help all women to stay pregnant.

Have you taken metformin while not pregnant? Do you know if it even works for you normally?

As a rule, doctors will not let you stay on actos while pregnant. They don't know that it's harmful, they don't know that it isn't harmful. I had to stop breastfeeding to go on Avandia for the same reason - they just don't know. They don't really "know" with metformin, either, but more women have stayed on it while pregnant and there has been no evidence to show it is harmful... so they feel better about women staying on it. It's a sticky area. No one wants to be a pregnant guinea pig... but the end result of that is, we don't have enough knowledge to make an informed decision.

I do know of at least one cyster who stayed on Avandamet (avandia and met) while preg and her baby was fine. Avandia is *similar* to Actos. It's POSSIBLE you will find a doctor to let you try it... you may have to sign some forms to the effect that it is YOUR choice, that the doctor is not responsible for any harm...

You might also just elect to have your progesterone measured closely, and supplement if needed. Do you know for sure that low progesterone is the reason - and the only reason - you miscarried?