Is Enbrel safe during pregnancy?
Whoa dude, no derma I’ve ever taken biologics with (three so far) would ever like EVER let me take them during pregnancy. The one I’m on right now I had to actually sign saying I was either on birth control or celibate, and I have to take pregnancy tests every month for them. These drugs are soooo new and the effects on the fetus just aren’t known. As you know the effects on US aren’t even really known. There’s no way in h-e-double-hockey-sticks I’d take them while pregnant no matter what the OB-GYN says. The OB-Gyn clearly knows shit about these drugs. If I were you I’d go on over to the Nat’l Psoriasis Foundation message board and do some searches. I can’t speak about PA but I’ve heard anecdotal reports of P patients being magically clear-skinned during pregnancy, that whole glowy thing you hear about. I totally understand your apprehension — I “only” have psoriasis (please beware minimizing that; obviously any of us on biologics necessarily have severe forms of the disease, it’s no
Category B: Animal reproduction studies have failed to demonstrate a risk to the fetus and there are no adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women OR Animal studies which have shown an adverse effect, but adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women have failed to demonstrate a risk to the fetus in any trimester. Most drugs are category B, as Pharma doesn’t want to pay for the studies for Category A — and most pregnant women wouldn’t want to be guinea pigs, either. I believe Tylenol and Motrin are both Category B, for example. The rheumatologist has more experience with Enbrel; the OB has more experience with pregnancy. You might try asking your OB if he or she knows anyone who deals with patients with autoimmune diseases frequently, or see if you could talk to someone in “high-risk” OB. All this being said, our genes and environments are all different, and it’s hard to say how any one person will react to a certain drug. We can say X% of patients do well or Y% w
Try calling OTIS:Organization of Teratology Information Specialists. They have a hotline #866-626-OTIS. It looks like they’re doing more studies on pregnancy and autoimmune disorders. And even if the studies on Enbrel are iffy now, you could help by joining a study so women in the future have better information. Good luck to you. I was lucky not to be diagnosed with RA until after my 2nd child, but it was still awful to have to give up breastfeeding in order to take the meds I needed to walk without pain. I hope you can find a good balance and can have a happy, healthy pregnancy.
