Cough medicine in 2nd trimester should pharmacist have refused to sell it to me?!

[noseymcposey]

I've had bronchitis for the last six weeks or so and have only been getting 2-3 hours sleep a night from coughing so much so I am knackered and have pulled allsorts of muscles in my chest and back - basically am quite miserable!

The mucus on my chest has FINALLY cleared up and I now just have a very annoying tickly cough. I woke up coughing at 3.30am this morning and didn't stop to get back to sleep until 6.00am so I am really desperate for some relief.

I read online that cough suppressants with dextromethorphanis are ok to take in the 2nd trimester (I am 14+3). So off I went to Boots and asked for a tickly cough medicine that was ok in pd, 2nd trimester and the pharmacist refused to sell it to me and would only sell me Linctus.

Is he right? Shouldn't I be taking it? I have tried steam inhalations, honey and lemon, salt water gargle basically anything I can think off.

I had whooping cough whilst pg with my DS (2nd trimester) and the GP would only let me have Simple Linctus, despite happily giving me ab's for it. I suppose the pharmacist has the right to refuse to sell anything if in his professional view it may be harmful to the person concerned.

Poor you having whooping cough

Quite a few websites say it's ok - such as below, but perhaps they are american?

www.babycenter.com/0_chart-over-the-counter-medications-during-pregnancy_1486462.bc

WWYD in my shoes? Take it? or not take it? Assuming someone will sell it to me!

Go see your gp

Try ringing NHS direct for advice (or whatever it's called this week...).
Personally I would follow the advice of a trained pharmacist above something on the internet which could have been put there by anyone. Hope you feel better soon.

In the USA it's classified as a category 3 drug, which is fairly vague. In this case it means that there haven't been enough human studies to justify it being a higher class and at least one animal study has shown a negative effect on pregnancy. In the case of this drug, the animal study in question was on chick eggs, and does not make a good comparison to humans (source: www.motherisk.org/women/drugsDetail.jsp?category_id=178&title=Dextromethorphan - click on 'full story for the detail'), and there are have been at least two human studies that have shown no negative effects on pregnancy, but they were small (one of the abstracts of said studies: ð¡hestjournal.chestpubs.org/data/Journals/CHEST/21958/466.pdf. A larger study is being conducted currently by the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Basically, I would say it's up to you. Are you very visibly pregnant? If you decide the evidence is enough to make you comfortable taking this medication, then buy it without saying you're pregnant. If you would rather not, then don't.

category c, not 3 (whoops, preggo brain )

I wanted some and got DH to buy it in case they said anything. I did the same research that you did and figured the benefits outweighed the risks. That's not to say I don't trust a pharmacist - I do - it's just they prefer to err on the side of caution which is fair enough. Except they are not the ones looking after 3 DC on my own most of the day on zero sleep for days on end thanks to coughing all night, which I feel is actually a lot more dangerous for all of us!

The risks seem so minute and pretty much unproven that I'm happy to take it. Especially as in previous pregnancies I've been high risk, had surgeries etc and taken, as prescribed by senior consultants, far, far worse drugs than that.

I'm actually more reluctant to take Sudafed/pseudoephedrine because of the effects on constricting blood vessels which would apply to the placenta as well, yet that's allowable at least in the US judging by my US friends. Never attempted to get it over here in the UK.

Thanks Wispa that's really useful info.

I agree Crispy - and while I understand why the pharmacists err on the side of caution there doesn't appear to be evidence that it is harmful, rather there is a lack of evidence that it isn't.

Agree regarding pseudoepehedrine as well. Although all the info I can find seems to relate to the first trimester.

Thanks for your help :)

This link has some quite useful info about the specific contents of each cough remedy

www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-safe-to-take-cold-medications-during-pregnancy_2299.bc