Chronic pain medication

[LouisaJane82]

Has anyone been on lyrica through out their pregnancy or have had to come off it?? Please help, I can find v little info on the subject!....

My partner and are want to start a family in the near future but have huge worries as I'm currently on lyrica (pregabalin) and have been for the last 5 years due to chronic sciatica. Before starting this drug I was pretty much bed bound. The sciatica was due to a re occurring disc bulge of which I had had surgery on 10 years ago. I have tried Physio, osteopath and chropath therapies and nothing has been able to get me to live my life, cycle to work even go to the gym on a weekly basis except lyrica.

I am now in a position where I just do not know what to do! The medics advise to come off the drug before we start to try for a baby but I'm terrified. Has anyone been on lyrica during their pregnancy both 1st and 2nd trimester? What do you know if any thing? As the medics seem to know v little? I'm also looking into finding a top specialist (private or not) for a second opinion. I just want to get informed and find out all my options if any? Does any one have any knowledge of this?
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Hi LouisaJane. I can't offer much knowledge but hugely empathise. I had chronic pain for about a year and a half, was on pregabalin and tramadol too for about six months of that time. My doctors were utterly clear that I needed to come off of them before I got pregnant, but said it would be clear of my system in less than three months (I gave it six to be safe but the docs said not necessary).

My situation was different as I actually never found the pregabalin very helpful anyway. In yours, I would fully support your idea to seek help from the best specialist(s) you can find - see if you can get advice from people who've had success with someone so you get good value. You don't deserve to have to go through all that pain for nine+ months!

On the plus side, one specialist I spoke to said that pregnancy often alleviates chronic pain (not my personal experience, but it must happen to some people, all those hormones coursing around). Best of luck!

Thank you Elastigrrrl,
Yes a recommendation for a specialist is definitely the way to go but even that is proving tricky as I don't know any one with a similar problem who either goes to a hospital in same area as me and or goes private. Need to find some sort of formum for recommend consultants or something...?