Immunosuppressive Medication Taken By Pregnant Women During First Trimester Does Not Harm Fetus

Women with chronic autoimmune disease who take drugs that suppress their immune system do not put their baby's health at risk.

The study conducted by experts at the Venderbilt University Medical Center claims that the intake of immunosuppressive medication by pregnant women does not put the fetus at any risk. This is the first study to look at the risk of medications to treat autoimmune disease that is taken during pregnancy.

Autoimmune disease occurs due to the abnormal immune response of the body against the tissue that is present in the body. The autoimmune disease is the ten leading cause of the death among women of all age group up to the age of 65 years.

"This study is important because these conditions affect nearly 4.5 million persons in the U.S., including many women of childbearing age. Currently, there are almost no data to guide women who are pregnant, or planning to become pregnant, who may need to continue their medications during pregnancy," said first author William Cooper, M.D., MPH, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Pediatrics and professor of Health Policy at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn.

In order to prove the hypothesis, researchers used data taken from the Tennessee Medicaid, Kaiser Permanente Northern California and Southern California. The three health plans covered more than 8 million people per year.

The data included 608 infants that included 437 infants who were exposed to the drug and 171 infants who infants had filled prescriptions for the immunosuppressive before pregnancy and not during pregnancy.

The study also included those women who suffered with rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, lupus, scleroderma, and inflammatory bowel disease and had filled for the prescription. The study also included drugs like hydroxychloroquine, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors and other immunosuppressives like sulfasalazine and azathioprine.

The researchers then compared the women who were taking the immunosuppressive before pregnancy and not during pregnancy. They noticed that the risk for adverse fetal outcome linked with the use of immunosuppressive during pregnancy was not significant statistically.

Cooper concluded that, "One of the things we find in studying drug exposures in pregnancy is that, because up to 50 percent of pregnancies are unplanned, women may be taking a medication and become pregnant while still taking a potentially harmful drug. Therefore, it's very important for women who have conditions that require medical treatments to talk with their providers about potential risks of medications in pregnancy."

The details were documented online in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.