Another substance for expectant mothers to be wary of may well be the common painkillers known as NSAIDS non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. A new Canadian study has found that 7.5 percent of more than 4,700 women who miscarried had taken an NSAID at some time during the pregnancy. This was compared with the less than 3 percent of the women who had taken NSAIDS without suffering a miscarriage. Statistically, this works out to a 2.4-time greater risk of miscarrying associated with taking NSAIDS. The study involved nearly 52,000 Quebec women and appears in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The researchers, who looked at NSAIDS other than aspirin, such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) and naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn), acknowledge that their findings do not necessarily indicate direct cause-and-effect. For instance, ACSH s Alyssa Pelish wonders whether it s possible that women who miscarried may have been more likely to have experienced related discomfort that led them to take an NSAID. However, notes senior researcher Anick Berard of the University of Montreal, the correlation between NSAIDS and miscarriage is biologically plausible, since NSAIDS affect the production of hormones called prostaglandins, which normally decline in the uterus during pregnancy. Such interference, Berard says, could be responsible for a miscarriage.
ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross agrees with the researchers explanation of biological plausibility. If I were taking care of a woman who was pregnant or might become pregnant, he says, I would advise her to take acetaminophen (Tylenol) for any pain she experienced.