Hi,
I'm currently TTC, am in the 2WW and have had to use ibuprofen over the last few days due to the removal of impacted wisdom teeth - no other painkiller has cut it (codeine, paracetamol etc. useless). I was really worried about this and the risks involved.
However, I thought other people might find the research I did about this useful - not because I'm trying to encourage everyone to use ibuprofen in their 2WW but because if anyone absolutely HAS to, on their doctor's advice, or has done it accidentally, it might ease their worries a bit. Obviously I'm not giving medical advice. Moreover, please note that these studies relate to early pregnancy - risks in the 2nd or 3rd trimester were not something I looked at.
There have been previous threads on mumsnet about ibuprofen/ NSAIDs during early pregnancy/ conception which have concluded it's a definite no as it raises risk of miscarriage or failed implantation. The general advice given on this topic is a consequence of 3 previous studies (here, here, and here).
It's these studies that the the guidelines used by the NHS seem to be based on (last updated in 2013!) but actually more recent studies seem to call this into question.
This study, for instance, showed that the statisical link is likely to be due to the fact that women seem to use such drugs to relieve pain in the one or two days immediately before a miscarriage. When you exclude women who did this from the analyses,
the effect disappears.
This retrospective Israeli cohort study also showed no effect, as did this prospective American cohort study.
Anyhow, I hope that someone other than me finds this useful and - again - this isn't medical advice!