Women who take common antibiotics to treat infections during the early stages of pregnancy may be at two-fold increased risk of suffering a miscarriage, a new study warns.
Researchers from Universite de Montreal in Canada looked at data from about 8,702 cases, defined as clinically detected spontaneous abortions, which were matched with 87,020 controls. The mean gestational age at the time of miscarriage was 14 weeks of pregnancy. A total of 1,428 (16.4 per cent) cases were exposed to antibiotics during early pregnancy compared to 11,018 (12.6 per cent) in controls.
Macrolides, quinolones, tetracyclines, sulfonamides and metronidazole were related to higher rates of pregnancy loss, the researchers say. However, a greater chance of pregnancy loss was not seen with the most frequently used antibiotics, including penicillin, the CNN reported.
