Atripla and Pregnancy

[spicy1]

Hi Ladies

Im planning on my second pregnancy and im currently on Truvada and stocrin. A visit to my GP to confirm which drugs i should switch to in preparation left me surprised. I was on Combivir and Kaletra in my first pregnancy and handled the drugs well as well as the fact that this combination are considered safe in Pregancy. My GP now advises me that i need to switch to Atripla and that its pretty safe in pregnancy despite my serious concerns about the side effects of stocrin. Im from South Africa and would be interested to hear from other ladies on the preffered / recommended drugs in their countries for pregnancy. And has anyone else heard about Atripla being recommended for pregnancy?

Cheers spiced

[BT65]

Spice, here are some recommendations from the "treatment" lessons of the forums.

http://www.poz.com/articles/1811_10565.shtml

I don't believe Atripla is recommended.

Edited to add:  here is the info for Atripla.  You scroll down to where it talks about Atripla and pregnancy, and it shows you shouldn't use it.

http://www.aidsmeds.com/archive/Atripla_1577.shtml




Info:
Can pregnant women take Atripla?
•Because Atripla contains Sustiva, it is classified by the FDA as a pregnancy category D drug. Women should not become pregnant while taking Atripla and for 12 weeks after stopping it. Serious birth defects have been seen in babies or animal and women treated with Sustiva during pregnancy. It is not known whether Sustiva caused these defects. Tell your health care provider right away if you are pregnant. Also talk with your health care provider if you want to become pregnant.

 Women should not rely on hormone-based birth control, such as pills, injections, or implants, because Atripla may make these contraceptives ineffective. Women must use a reliable form of barrier contraception, such as condom or diaphragm, even if they also use other methods of birth control. Sustiva may remain in your blood for a time after treatment is stopped. Therefore, you should continue to use contraceptive measures for 12 weeks after you stop taking Atripla.
 
• It is not known whether the three drugs in Atripla pass into breast milk and what effect they may have on a nursing baby. To prevent transmission of the virus to uninfected babies, it is recommended that HIV-positive mothers not breast-feed.

[Ann]

Two very good resources for information about what meds are ok during pregnancy can be found in the Family Planning lesson here at AIDSmeds.com and iBase's Guide to hiv and Pregnancy. Good luck!

[whoknew]

The advice here in the uk is still to switch off of atripla when planning a pregnancy BUT this appears to be because of the guidelines not because of the evidence of harm. I fell pregnant on ATRIPLA and was terrified but looking at the research the statistics were very very low.  Acording to my consultant who I saw last week they are looking on changing the guidelines after longterm analasis of babies born to those like me who were on Atripla during first trimester ( and in my case the whole pregnancy) now there is better statistics to go on they can get a better picture.

I have not heard of drs recomending it for pregnancy but from a personal point of view I have had no ill affects ( note that is only me I obviously cant guarentee !)

off now to feed my gorgeous healthy negative baby boy