Pregnancy & Statins

Because elevated cholesterol levels lead to deposits of fat inside your blood vessels and pose a risk for hardening of your arteries, heart disease and heart attack, doctors often prescribe medication to help lower high cholesterol levels. Statin medications like rosuvastatin and pravastatin are common choices, but these drugs are usually not prescribed for use during pregnancy.

Function

• During pregnancy, cholesterol in your body aids in the development of your baby's tissues.

Effects

• Statins decrease the amount of cholesterol produced by your liver, and during pregnancy this could lead to a shortage of fats in your body.

Significance

• Because of their possible impact upon fetal development, statin medications are listed as "Category X" by the FDA, meaning that women should discontinue use of the medications as soon as they discover that they are pregnant.

Expert Insight

• A 2006 study conducted at the Research Center at CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal, Canada and published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology showed that taking statins during the first trimester of pregnancy posed no increased harmful effects on fetal development. The study did caution that more research is needed, but suggests that taking statins until you learn of your pregnancy is not likely to cause any serious harm even if it is a few weeks into your first trimester.

Considerations

• Because hardening of the arteries is a slow process, it is unlikely that discontinuing use of statin medications during pregnancy will pose any serious health risks, reports the U.S. National Library of Medicine. If your doctor is concerned, an alternative to statin drugs are fibrate cholesterol medications, like fenofibrate, which are occasionally prescribed for pregnant women.