Miscarriage risk may be higher by using common antibiotics

 

A new study suggests that guidelines for antibiotic use during early pregnancy might need to be reviewed, after finding that some common classes of the drug could double the risk of miscarriage.

Researchers from the University of Montreal in Canada have identified a link between the use of macrolides, quinolones, tetracycline, and some other common antibiotics in early pregnancy and an increased risk of miscarriage.

The findings were recently reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Miscarriage is defined as the spontaneous loss of a fetus before 20 weeks of pregnancy.
According to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, miscarriage occurs in around 15 to 20 percent of women who are aware of their pregnancy, and it is most common among women aged 35 or older.

Over half of all miscarriages are caused by abnormalities in the chromosomes of the fetus. Other factors that may raise the risk of miscarriage include diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, obesity, and infection.

Study co-author Dr. Anick Bérard, of the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Montreal, notes that antibiotics are widely used during pregnancy to help treat infection, but studies assessing their safety have produced conflicting results.

While previous studies have identified a link between antibiotic use in pregnancy and risk of miscarriage, the researchers note that these studies have a number of limitations, such as small samples and recall bias.

Dr. Bérard and colleagues sought to address such limitations with their new research. "We aimed to quantify the association between exposure to antibiotics during pregnancy and the risk of spontaneous abortion, taking into account methodologic limitations of previous studies," they explain.