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Has anyone gone through a pregnancy while on Fentanyl?

I have been on Fentanyl for 8 years and just found out, we are pregnant. In shock, since we have children ready for college. Has anyone gone through and entire pregnancy while on Fentanyl. I have read all reports/studies and have the best dr's. However, I need to know more.
Thanks you.
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Avatar universal
I found out I was pregnant at 5weeks and 3 days at the womens hospital a surprise cause I have pcos. We were trying for years but after 8years f wanting and trying with non success we stopped! And I M on fentanyl patch and oxycodone due to injuries I received in a car accident in 2002 that caused me to have multiple injuries and surgeries. The dr at the Women's went over my list of medicines although she did stop 2 of them or changed them to something that was safe with pregnancy she said that my fentanyl and my oxycodone was fine but only take the oxycodone as needed so I have been trying not to take it only if nothing else is helping but my pain level is causing me to have high blood pressure and she added a medicine for that but when I don't take my pill it still goes up and they say that the high blood pressure is worse but I am going to my pain management dr this week actually the same day I go to my first ultra sound and I am going to see if I have other options that would help my pain better and be safer or what the suggest for me to do to help ensure a healthy baby cause I couldn't live with myself if I caused something to be wrong with my baby cause of the medicine I take! Or if I lost him or her cause of my meds or high blood pressure  this baby is so wanted I found out on a Sunday that I was pregnant I just had a feeling but that Tuesday I was scheduled for a procedure called radio frequency on my back and if I went through with this I could have killed it or gave him or her tri attic birth defect so I am thankful I went with my instinct and went to the women's hospital! Now we just pray for a healthy baby
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I am pregnant to on the patches how your baby I am so worried about losing my please help going crazy thinking
Avatar universal
That is the truth. I wanted to say this before to the girl on percoset or oxycotin, if you can just 'stop taking them with no problem" you haveNO BUsiness being onthem in the first place. I am 10 weeks and have to take fentanyl and percoset due to severe spinal and hip injuries and it is a batlle EVERY SINGLE DAY to try to not take the medicine, minimize my intake of the medicine, not upset the baby, and try nott obessivly worry about will my baby be ok or not or have neonatal withdrawl or some defect. This is an absolute nightmare and basically a worst case scenario that a person can o thru. Please keep me and my baby in your prayers and i will do the same for all of you. Thank you so much for posting some real life experiences and results with is issue. I cant stop worrying all day every day and this thread has helped me to feel a little bit better. Thanks so muchfor sharing your experiences  
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Avatar universal
Not to sound rude but if you can just get off all your pain meds because you are pregnant, than you must not be in enough pain to be on them when not pregnant!  My blood pressure is 150/90 normally 105/70 when my pain medication is even lowered because I am pregnant, my OBGYN actually wants them to increase my pain management because it is less healthy for the baby to be in all the stress
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Avatar universal
I understand your struglle to getting pregnant. I was also on pain meds when I found out I was pregnant in 2005. I was told I could not get pregnant without fertility treatments due to severe case of PCOS. I was also on a slew of other meds. Stopped the two antidepressants right away and everything else except the pain meds. Was also told would cause a miscarriage because of the stress involved in going off the med so quickly. I decided to go on Methadone instead. There have been many studies done on pregnancies with this med. I also was seeing a high risk OB for this very reason. During my pregnancy I became very stressed thinking of all the possibilities they ended up putting me on Ativan during my last tri-mester. The doctor said all the stress would cause worse problems, like pre-term birth and a change in the baby's tempermant. I also developed severe sciatica in the last months. I had to walk with two canes to get to the doctor. Other times I was bed bound. I was on a very low dose of Methadone, by pregnancy standards. My daughter was born one month early on purpose. I could no longer handle the pain. They did an amniocentises to make sure her lungs were mature and delivered her that day by c-section due to my low-level multi-fusion.
She did end up in the NICU due to fluid in her lungs from the c-section and she was weaned down with morphine. It took over a week and they wanted to make sure she did not suffer. They were over-aggressive with her, I never saw any withdrawal symptoms(I am a Neonatal ICU nurse myself) so I really don't know how much weaning, if any, she really needed. She was always asleep, hard to wake up, and never finished a feeding due to the morphine they put in her bottles. How in the world could they assess her like that. She began losing weight because of the feeding issues so they slowed way down on the Morphine and weaned much faster and was off of it three days later with no problems. She is very keen and smart for a 5 yr old now and plays the piano.
Everyone must make their own decision they can be comfortable with. If I had thought I could of gotten off the meds when I found out I was pregnant I would of. I was scared into thinking that I could not and did not want to lose my daughter I so desperately wanted and was given to me by God. What a blessing she has been indeed. A bit too rambunctious at times but who could ask for anything more.
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Avatar universal
Dear BlessedbyGod,

PLEASE go to the top of this Thread and click on the Green Tab that says "Post a Question" and RE-POST your question as a NEW question.  This Thread is over 2 years old.  You will get a LOT more help that way.  I will be looking for YOUR NEW Thread and answer it then.

LOOKING FOR YOU NEW POST............Sherry  :)
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Avatar universal
Im 6 wks pregnant and have been on fentanyl for 5 years just found out we were pregnant against imposible odds as I also have pcos! Started weaning off meds immediatly and am 24hrs in with no patch the pain dr. gave me oxycodone  to help me wean off of patches. I am reading alot about having 6months of withdraws is this true? I figuared 3 days maybe 14day but months.... really and could I lose the baby? I had 2 adopt my daughter because of fertility issues I cant lose this baby!
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Avatar universal
I read your story and my case is almost identical to yours . I have been on patches for almost 9 years for chronic pain. I lost my baby this week in my ninth week. I don't know what the cause was at this time. My doctor told me that there would not be any harm to the baby. It was a bigger risk to come off for me. At least that is what my Ob doctor told me. My husband is on sprycel for leukemia. So we don't know if this was the cause of the miscarriage or what yet. I was just wondering how your pregnancy turned out?
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Avatar universal
Hi,
I am on Fentanyl.  I looked into using the patches while pregnant when we were trying IVF.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get pregnant.  I consulted a doctor who told me probably my main problem with using Fentanyl that it would probably decrease my fertility.  I did manage to find one article published in the United Kingdom.  I think it was in the late 1990's.  A doctor followed the pregnancy of a woman who was in her 30's on Fentanyl patches.  She delivered a healthy baby who had no problems and didn't show any opioid dependence.  Hope this helps.
M.
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356518 tn?1322263642
http://drugsafetysite.com/fentanyl/

Here is some information I found.
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356518 tn?1322263642
Congratulation's to you both!
I do not take fentanyl but do take oxycontin. I went off all my pain medications for both of my pregnancies. I have a 21 year old son and then got pregnant with my first daughter in 2002 and I went off my meds totally. I again got pregnant with my second daughter in 2003 and I also went off all medications.
I have to tell you it was very tough! I was fortunate enough to have my son and husband who totally waited on me hand and foot and was basically bed ridden the time with both pregnancies but it was totally wort it in the end as I did not to worry and stress the medications harming my babies. Now this is the option I chose and you have to make your own choice as to how you handle your medications and pregnancies. Just keep in mind that while there are studies done on taking pain medications while pregnant there is always a chance that the medications will affect the baby negatively.It option for me as I seen it one way, I would suffer for nine months and ensure my baby would not be affected or I could take the meds and risk my baby being harmed for the rest of her life.
Please do not get me wrong there are many women who do take pain meds and they and their baby did fine I just did not feel that was an option for me personally.
I looked for studies done on the risk involved with taking fentynal while pregnant and there have been no human studies. I did see that chronic maternal treatment with fentanyl during pregnancy has been associated with transient respiratory depression, behavioral changes, and seizures in newborn infants characteristic of neonatal abstinence syndrome.
Animal studies have revealed evidence of embryotoxicity, fetotoxicity, and embryolethality.

Fentanyl should only be used in pregnancy when benefit outweighs risk.

I will keep looking for more information though and let you both know what I find.
If you do choose to keep taking this particular medication or any pain medication I would suggest that you have a high risk OB-Gyn.



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Avatar universal
Hello, Jeri08
That is a great question I wish I could help as well but I have the same question myself we just found out that we are pregnant to and I am on 50mcg of fentanyl myself.. if you can find any answers I would appreciate if you could let me know to.. thanks.. and good luck with your pregnancy :)
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547368 tn?1440541785
Hi Jeri,

Welcome to the Pain Management Forum. Congratulations on your pregnancy. I am sorry that I cannot help you with your questions.

Hopefully a member may have some information for you.

Best of luck to you. I hoping you will have a healthy baby and an uneventful pregnancy.

Take Care,
Tuck
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