Pregnant women are often affected by nasal congestion and look for remedies that could help them such as Afrin. But is Afrin safe during pregnancy?
This is a non-prescription nasal decongestant. At the moment it isn’t certain whether the nasal spray is safe or not for the use of pregnant women.
Category C
The FDA uses a category system to classify the risks associated to different kinds of drugs. Afrin is a category C medication.
This is a category given to medication that wasn’t tested on pregnant women or that didn’t seem to have negative effects on the fetuses of pregnant animals.
In the same time this category is also used in order to describe medication that wasn’t studied on pregnant humans or animals. One of the active agents of the medication is oxymetazoline.
This wasn’t studied well enough in case of pregnant animals. Smaller studies show that a dose of the medication doesn’t do any harm to pregnant women or the baby.
What should you consider?
On the other hand when it comes to using Afrin during pregnancy, if there is an overdose, it could cause stress to the baby.
He or she could be affected by a slow heart rate or he or she may not receive all the oxygen needed. This is because the active agent of the spray could constrict the blood vessels.
Specific instructions
According to the specialists it is better to use the nasal decongestants that have to be administered through the mouth. Their advantage is that their agents don’t get directly in the bloodstream as in case of the nasal sprays.
Nonetheless it is best to wait for the results of other studies before giving a definite answer.
The women who have high risk pregnancies should avoid using Afrin while being pregnant, especially if they are affected by placental problems among other problems.
