Flu in early pregnancy

[FloralMoon]

Hi all

I’m very early at 5+2 and pretty sure I have flu (took a negative covid test today). I don’t feel absolutely dreadful and have been managing at home okay. I looked it up and this shows on the NHS website to contact GP asap. I phoned them today and was just told by a receptionist to call a chemist. So I phoned the chemist and was just told to take some paracetamol.

I wasn’t necessarily looking for any medical intervention but just some reassurance or checking in by a nurse/Dr. This is my first pregnancy and I don’t know if this could leave me with a higher risk of miscarriage this early on.

I think I will phone the surgery again tomorrow and insist to speak so a Dr as I feel EPU is more for actual direct problems with the pregnancy such as pain/bleeding… do you guys agree? Thank you x

You would need a swab to confirm if it’s actually flu, otherwise it’s ‘just’ (!) a flu like virus or a cold. Definitely try to speak to a Dr today, even if it’s just so they can reassure you, not an EPU situation. Did you have your flu vaccination? You will have to wait now if not, you are eligible for a covid vaccination too.
I hope you feel better soon

I think most important thing is to keep you temperature down as that would be dangerous for the baby so take the paracetamol as directed.

If you have actual flu you cannot get out of bed. I would think if you are ok to write this post and look on the internet you have a bad cold. There’s so many viruses around at the moment and Covid tests aren’t picking up as there’s apparently such a short time frame of 1/2 hours when you would get a positive test result. Both my son and I have a bad cold at the moment, 3 days and it’s getting better now.

I had 'proper' flu when I was pregnant with DD - the midwife checked me over and I'll never forget she said baby is like a parasite as they'll take all the goodness they need first from you so not to worry!
Of course we do worry!
I kept up my liquids but lost weight (which I had to lose anyway!)
No effect on DD!

If you do have flu then there's actually nothing a nurse or doctor can do for you other than advising bed rest and paracetamol.

As others have said flu means you can't get out of bed so it's more likely you have a virus.

Either way take it easy, paracetamol, lots of fluids and hope you feel better soon.

When I was pregnant I got very unwell with I assumed flu. Maternity unit & GP told me the 1 thing to look out for whilst pregnant is a consistent high temp as that would be cause for concern. Other than that all advised paracetamol.

Thanks everyone - deffo a horrid virus of some sort and feeling worse today. Will call GP again for advice and continue with fluids and rest.
A very aware this could result in my immune system wanting to fight off everything including the pregnancy. Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen

Update - saw Dr this morning and confirmed covid, feeling rubbish today and lots of rest, fluids and regular paracetamol

Hello @FloralMoon how did you get on with this pregnancy?

I'm 4 weeks pregnant for the 6th time (after 5 previous losses), my husband has a virus and it's really stressing me out that I might get it). I realise the stress won't help! Just hoping for some reassurance.

Hello 👋🏻
everything turned out okay - I had covid and then went on to get a secondary chest infection and had a couple of rounds of antibiotics. This happened a second time later on in the pregnancy (I’m quite prone to chest infections) but the pregnancy has been unaffected. Drs reassured me throughout that it didn’t really mean there was an increased risk of miscarriage

Hope you feel okay - it’s understandable that you’d feel particularly anxious and never any harm in having a chat with your GP if you’re pregnant and unwell - sometimes just the reassurance can be helpful x