Flucostat in pregnancy

Thrush is a common female disease caused by yeast-like fungi. Thrush does not go away on its own, it must be treated. In principle, pharmacies currently offer a lot of effective drugs for this disease, including flucostat. However, is flucostat possible during pregnancy?

After all, during this most important period for a woman, the appearance of thrush can pose a real threat to the course of pregnancy and the health of the baby, and taking many medications during pregnancy is prohibited. What to do?

Indications for the use of flucostat during pregnancy

Flucostat is contraindicated during pregnancy. In rare cases, under certain conditions, fungal infection can affect the entire body. Severe generalized candidiasis with damage to external and internal tissues and organs can lead to death in 75% of cases. In the absence of necessary therapy, even a common thrush in the vagina or oral cavity can develop into a large-scale chronic fungal infection. This is often facilitated by other serious diseases that disrupt the immune defense in the body: diabetes, leukemia, HIV infection.

If a situation arises where the priority is not so much the state of pregnancy and the preservation of the fetus, but the life of the pregnant woman, then in this case the use of flucostat is allowed.

In all other cases, the use of the drug during pregnancy is contraindicated.

Method of administration and dosage

As we have already found out, flucostat during pregnancy can be prescribed by a doctor only if there is a risk of developing a generalized form of fungal infection with damage to most internal organs and tissues. If there is a high risk of infection generalization, the doctor prescribes the drug in a dosage of 400 mg once a day, the duration of treatment is one week or more, depending on the indications.

As a rule, flucostat is not prescribed for prevention and local forms of candidiasis during pregnancy.

Is it possible to use flucostat during pregnancy?

Flucostat is an antifungal drug, which is represented by the active substance fluconazole. This substance is widely used to treat candidiasis, both in women and men. Such drugs as fucis, difluzol, diflucan, mycosist, flucoside are all synonyms of the drug flucostat based on fluconazole.

It remains to add that all fluconazole preparations without exception (including flucostat) are prohibited for use during pregnancy, as well as during breastfeeding. The fact is that this drug actively penetrates all tissues and fluids of the body, including through the placental barrier. Fluconazole has a toxic effect not only on fungal infections, but also on some vital processes of the body, including the body of the baby growing in the womb.

There are other, less toxic drugs for treating thrush during pregnancy. Flucostat can only be used in cases of generalized candidal infection, when the fungal infection can threaten the life of the pregnant woman. In such cases, the benefit to the woman is valued higher than the harm caused to the child.

Flucostat when planning pregnancy

If you use flucostat when planning a pregnancy, the appropriateness of using the drug should be assessed by your doctor. It is recommended to first treat thrush or candidiasis, and only then start planning a pregnancy. If a fungal infection has caught you at the planning stage, the best solution would be to postpone conception, or use other antifungal drugs that are not prohibited during pregnancy.

The fact is that the pharmacological properties of flucostat are somewhat specific: the active component fluconazole is distributed throughout all tissues in the body. Its excretion through the kidneys occurs slowly, over several weeks. Residues of the substance are found in the nail tissue even six months (!) after the end of treatment with flucostat. Given the accumulation of the drug in the body and its slow excretion, it is recommended to carry out treatment with flucostat before planning a pregnancy.

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Flucostat in early pregnancy

Experimental studies conducted at the Danish Research Institute determined the effect of the active component of flucostat in early pregnancy. Scientists found that the use of the drug in the first weeks of pregnancy can provoke the development of heart defects in the future baby.

Unfortunately, there are often cases when a woman takes flucostat in the early stages, not yet knowing about her "position". But just in the first weeks of gestation, at the beginning of the first trimester, at the time when the formation of the fetus's cardiac system and organs occurs, many medications are very, very dangerous.

Scientists analyzed the health indicators of children born between 1996 and 2011. During the experiment, it was discovered that women who took flucostat in the first weeks of pregnancy or later had three times higher rates of congenital heart disease in their children.

Previous studies have already shown that the use of high doses of flucostat in the first weeks of pregnancy can cause a number of congenital defects in newborns, such as defects of the musculoskeletal system, malformations of the mouth and face, etc.

In this regard, a decision was made to prohibit the use of fluconazole preparations during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

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Contraindications to the use of flucostat during pregnancy

A contraindication to the use of flucostat during pregnancy is, in fact, pregnancy itself.

Flucostat is an FDA pregnancy category C drug.

What does this mean?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has identified a number of potential risks to the fetus from the use of medications by pregnant women. This list has six categories: Flucostat is included in category C. This category includes those drugs that have been experimentally tested on animals and their negative impact on the fetus has been proven. However, similar studies have not been conducted on humans with these drugs, which, on the one hand, may justify their use, but, on the other hand, this poses a significant risk to the developing child.

For this reason, specialists try to refrain from prescribing flucostat, replacing this drug with other antifungal agents that definitely do not have a damaging effect on the fetus.

Side effects of flucostat during pregnancy

For a long time, there were no reports of any adverse effects of flucostat on the fetus or pregnancy. However, there is currently information that various birth defects were found in newborns whose mothers used uncontrolled amounts of fluconazole for three months or more. Of course, direct studies on this issue have not been conducted, but at the moment it is generally accepted that the use of fluconazole (the active ingredient of flucostat) in a dosage of 400 mg / day can negatively affect the development of the fetus.

Common side effects that may also occur in non-pregnant women include the following:

• changes in taste, dyspepsia, bouts of nausea, yellowing of the sclera and skin;
• headaches, dizziness, seizures;
• cardiac disorders;
• allergy;
• deterioration of renal function.

Overdose

When using unreasonably high doses of flucostat, paranoid behavior and hallucinogenic states may develop, and the side effects of flucostat during pregnancy may also increase.

There is no specific antidote for drug overdose. As a rule, symptomatic therapy, gastric lavage, and sorbent agents (activated carbon, sorbex, etc.) are used. Hemodialysis or forced diuresis may be used.

Reviews of Flucostat during pregnancy

Before making independent conclusions based on reviews of flucostat during pregnancy, it is necessary to consult a doctor. Pregnancy is not the time to experiment on yourself and your future child, and flucostat (like other fluconazole drugs) is not a drug that can be taken carelessly during pregnancy.

Pregnant women are advised to use topical antifungal medications: suppositories, ointments, gels or sprays. Such medications have a local effect, are practically not absorbed into the bloodstream and do not have a negative impact on the fetus or the course of pregnancy.

Flucostat is a systemic drug that not only penetrates the blood and spreads throughout the body, but also settles in fluids and tissues, including the reproductive organs and tissues of the embryo.

Only in the case of a generalized course of fungal infection, with a threat to the life of a woman, can the use of fluconazole preparations be allowed. In any case, flucostat during pregnancy should be prescribed by a doctor: taking the drug on your own is in no case allowed. Moreover, if you are planning a pregnancy, then before starting to take flucostat, make sure that conception has not occurred, and use condoms during treatment.