Threadworms in pregnancy - should I take Ovex?

[beyondhorizons]

Looking for some advice as I discovered yesterday that I have threadworms / pinworms and I'm not sure the best course of action! Such horrible little things and causing me an awful lot of discomfort. I'm not sure where I got them from as I don't currently have children, but I am 23 weeks pregnant with my first baby.

I phoned my GP today and they advised to try to wait 6 weeks and take extra hygiene measurements and if that doesn't work then we can consider medication - but 6 weeks?!? That seems like such a long time to live like this! I've already broken my tumble dryer with the amount of washes I put through yesterday and sleep is hard to come by with the crawling!

I've looked into Ovex / Mebendazole in pregnancy and can't see any bad stats about it causing problems after the first trimester but feel completely torn as I don't wish to do anything to harm baby, but surely sharing his home with worms can't be great either? What would you do? Anyone have experience?

6 weeks why? What will that do if they already in your body they will just reproduce and get worse!
There are loads of home remedies if you goggle. I know my Polish friend said i. poland they make Walnut syrup and that works.
Did they say why wait 6 weeks?

I'm curious to hear others experiences and what their GP recommended, and also to offer reading for anyone else struggling with the same

Apparently 5-6 weeks is the life span of the worm, so if you don't accidentally re-infect yourself then technically they should be gone.

But the chance of re-infection is extremely high when they're laying hundreds of eggs every night and I've heard of people struggling with this for years until their treated, so I have little faith.

Herbal remedies I would definitely consider, so I will look into walnut syrup, thank you for your response!

I would get a second opinion from a different doctor if you can. I have had threadworms before and it is horrible (also psychologically horrible knowing what is causing the discomfort) but I would also be wary about taking medication during pregnancy if one doctor has advised against.

I took ovex when pregnant and my son is completely fine. There's no way I wouldn't take it tbh. I can't have threadworm for 2 years (you're not allowed to have it when breastfeeding either).

Just an update - I got a second opinion from a different GP and they were happy to prescribe Ovex/Mebendazole due to me being well into my second trimester and the fact the threadworms were impacting my day-to-day. All symptoms have gone away in 24 hours and I can finally sleep again - bliss! Baby still feels as active as normal.

I also did my own research prior to the appointment and I found this report to be the most extensive: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3458300/. A study conducted in Denmark over 10 years of pregnant women taking the medication with no negative outcomes noted.