Posted by Cindylou on January 7, 2002, at 12:43:22
In reply to Re: Effexor Withdrawal and Pregnancy, posted by mdertinger on January 3, 2002, at 13:08:05
I'm not really following this thread very well ... are you all saying it's best to be off meds totally when you get pregnant -- or to stay on meds proven safe, like Prozac?
I only have one child, and got off all meds before getting pregnant. I suffered very severe postpartum depression and anxiety, and it has taken me two years to get back on a med combo that works (my hormonal and/or chemical make up must have really changed) ...
Now I am on 100 mg Lamictal and a very small dose of Serzone (75 mg) which seems to help with anxiety. I am feeling better, not 100%, but at least I don't have that heavy, exhausted, have-to-nap feeling all day like I used to.
Here's the catch -- now that my daughter is 2, I would really like to try again and have another. I am scared to get off the meds now, though. I'm not sure if it's worth it to go off the meds and try again now (I'm 37 1/2, so i don't have much "childbearing time" left), or wait another 6 months or so, or just not have another at all.
I've thought about adopting, but I'm not sure I would be qualified to adopt while on medication for a mood disorder..
Any thoughts, comments, etc. are appreciated here.
thanks, cindy
> I totally agree! I went off my Prozac with my first child and got post partum depression really bad. When I went back on, I needed a higher dose. I again stopped taking any AD's when I was pregnant with my second child. I guess I'm lucky because the pregancy hormones seem to keep the depression at bay. But then after my second was born, I had really, really bad post partum. I had to be admitted to a hospital. I saw a new pdoc and she told me that 1) post partum gets progressively worse after each child and 2) I should have started back on the Prozac in my third trimester, or right after birth. Prozac is ok to take while pregnant and while breast feeding, but I thought I could get by without it.
> How wrong I was! I don't plan to have anymore children, but if I did, I would start back on Prozac in my third trimester.
>
> > >I just want to tell you that I went through the same thing when I found out I was pregnant 6 years ago.
> > My son is very healthy and extremely smart so the effexor had no adverse effects. I quit cold turkey at 6 weeks and it was almost unbearable except I didn't want to harm the baby and the doctors never warned me of any side effects when doing so (actually they didn't know!).
> > One thing I want to tell you because perhaps I can save you alot of suffering, is that I went through post pardom depression at its worst and almost lost my life and my son and it went on for two years (now it's happening all over and I don't know why). The worst part is that I asked the doctor for help and told him the effexor isn't working when my son was one month old. His response was 'you look good to me' and told me another twisted story and sent me on my way. Not even 4 months later I tried to kill myself and honestly thought my son would be better off being raised by my parents (which is something I know would be a horrible life for any human being, especially my son, when I'm not as lost).
> > In the hospital, and under better care, I found out that after you have a child your hormones are all over the place and nothing is the same. The dosage I was taking was far too little and a doctor should know better as far as thinking your body will react the same way to the dosage you were on before giving birth.
> > Makes complete sense to me now but I think we depend on our doctors opinions far too much. It's hard for them to know everything so we rally have to do our own research as far as our health and our children's health are concerned.
> > I was a mess when I was pregnant but got through it only because I kept thinking of the inocent child growing inside of me who deserves the best chance at life.
> > I hope you get to read this as I could go on and on but mostly because I want you to be very careful after the baby's born and believe yourself most of all. Post pardom is a natural thing but don't let it get too out of hand because it's much harder coming back.
poster:Cindylou
thread:64904
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020103/msgs/89178.html