Hyperemesis and Ondansetron

[Sophiey11]

Hi all. A few months ago I suffered a miscarriage at 12 weeks. I had an awful pregnancy from week 2 as I suffered badly with hyperemesis gravidarum. I was hospitalised 3 times in 6 weeks, lost 3 stone and was extremely physically week and battling bad mental health as a result. I was prescribed Cyclizine, Metaclopramide and Promethazine. None of them helped and I was being sick almost 10 times a day and going days without food and water. I have recently found out I am pregnant again (4 weeks) and the nausea has already started. I have not yet been sick, but can tell it is brewing as I am gagging all day every day, and already struggling to eat. Doctors have put me on Ondansetron as it is ‘supposedly’ the best. I have take 2 x 8mg (as prescribed) today and felt no relief what so ever. I am just wondering if anyone who’s been on Ondansetron found it took a while to take affect? Usually before with the others I would notice some relief straight away, but it would quickly subside and start being sick again. Tia.

I had ondansetron after awful experience with cyclizine and I was told it would kick in pretty much immediately, unfortunately for me it didn’t do much for the nausea. Good luck.

Ondansetron stops the vomitting for me about half the time but the nausea doesn't go. It makes me very constipated so keep an eye on that.

Ondansetron is the best I've had, Cyclizine was okay in one of my other pregnancies but did nothing this time and I had a horrendous reaction to metclopromide that landed me in A&E.

Long term HG sufferer here - currently approaching end of my second pregnancy. Nee in admitted more times then I can count for rehydration so know you are not alone - stay strong!

Unfortunately nothing will take away the nausea.

Ondansetron is the best there is but quite often it is needed alongside another one. You need to play about with combos until you find one that works but it does need to build up in your system for a while before you see the benefit.

In the end ondansetron, prochlorperazine and omprezole was the best combo for me but I'm still sick a lot

Good Luck

I found that IV Ondansetron and a drip was necessary for me to stop the nausea / vomiting cycle. Once under control for a couple of days, I was able to switch to the tablets. It worked very well for me - I went from continuous severe nausea and vomiting 20-30 times a day to 'just' mild nausea and the occasional vomit. I was 18+ weeks when they introduced ondansetron though (after trying and failing with a squillion other drugs).

Thank you all so much for your replies. I took the Ondansetron at 5am this morning as I woke with bad nausea. By 10am I had no improvement so took a Cyclizine, which did help and I’ve felt a lot better since and managed to eat. Doctors have said I can take the two as long as I space them out, so I’m really hoping this is the mix I need and I won’t get as bad as last time. Thanks again. Xx