Saturday, January 2, 2010

Bendectin and Diclectin

You might wonder why I'm thinking (hoping, praying) Diclectin will work for me.  Go back to the year 1977.  Early that year a woman found out she was pg.  Her son was just turning a year old and the thought of being "sick as a dog" while chasing after a busy toddler was overwhelming.  She asked her OB if there was anything she could take. She was told about and given Bendectin and it worked so well she took it again in '79 for another pregnancy.  Who was this woman?  She is my mom. 

Sadly, Bendectin is no longer available in the US and this is why:

Bendectin is an anti-nausea drug that is a combination of Vitamin B6 and doxylamine succinate (antihistamine) and was on the US market from the 1950's until 1983, when it was voluntarily removed from the market by its manufacturer, Merrell Dow. The reason?  False statments that it was causing birth defects. As alarming as that sounds, the evidence and history has not shown any proof between its use and an increase in birth defects. Today most OB's approve of its use and tell you how to "make your own" over the counter version. If you do some research, you will see that upon Bendectin's removal from the market, the rate of birth defects remained steady while the rate of hospitalizations for NVP doubled. It has been thought that Bendectin was used by lawyers, eager for money, as a reason to start suing. The legal fees were costing Merrell Dow more than the drug was making so they removed it from the market.

Most interesting to me is that due to all of this, Bendectin (Diclectin) remains the most studied antiemetic for use in pregnancy. And these studies showed it was safe and effective. Diclectin is a "Class A" drug - the safest rating there is.  I was told by my MW that Tylenol was a "Class B"
Click HERE for the FDA drug rating chart.

Bendectin is still available in Canada under the name of Diclectin, I was able to get some and this is how:

My husband and I met with my OB and talked about our desire to have more children and how to better control HG.
She was comfortable with me taking Diclectin and wrote me a Rx.
I then took to the internet to find a pharmacy in Canada where I could order it.  It was as easy as scanning my Rx and emailing it to a company called canadadrugs.com.  I had it 2 weeks later.

8 comments:

VioLynn said...

Hello, fellow sufferer! We have the SAME DUE DATE! I am pregnant with my fourth (I still can't quite believe that) and the sickness has really kicked in.

I've been sick with all my pregnancies. I (barley) manage it with homemade Diclectin (see below) and acupuncture.

It's time to start my regime again: Vit B6 and Unisom. I think I'll do what you did and get it from a Canadian pharmacy--great idea. 'Til then....I'll start my homemade version.

Janet said...

Well, can't believe that 2 HG sufferers have the same due date (and that you found my blog). Congrats to you on your pregnancy! I may have to start the unisom and b6 if my diclectin reorder doesn't come tomorrow!

Katherine T. Lauer said...

Thanks for sharing! I am so similar! I am 33 and pregnant with #3, having suffered HG during the first two. I self-medicated with homemade Bendectin with #2 and plan to do the same this time around. I give everyone I can my lecture about Bendectin, which is just what you wrote on your blog post. So now, I can just refer them to read this post!

Janet said...

Hi Katherine,
I'm glad you found my blog helpfull. HOw did you like the homemade version of Bendectin? I couldn't believe how well the diclectin worked for me this pregnany. Hope your delivery goes well!!

Anonymous said...

I took Bendectin with my first pregnancy back in 1983. By the time I had my second child it had been taken off the market. I heard the stories about it causing birth defects and have never heard the side of the story that you told. I started searching for info about bendectin because my oldest daughter is now trying to get pregnant and I wanted to make sure that she would not suffer any side effects in her pregnancy caused from my taking the bendectin. You give me hope. Can you direct me to some of the articles you found about it being safe to take? Just a mama wanting some encouragement.

Rhonda S

Janet said...

I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you. This blog has taken a back seat and I only tend to check for comments about once a month or so.

By reading Ashli Foshee McCall's book (link on my side bar) 'Beyond Morning Sickness', is how I first started to learn that Bendectin/Diclectin was actually safe. I then started doing google searches to learned more.
I did save some of the links I found:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=117905&page=1&page=1

http://www.helpher.org/

http://diclectin.com/index.html

If you did your own search, I am sure you can find even more.
Here is my post on how to make an over the counter version of diclectin: http://babymakesusfive.blogspot.com/2010/01/bendectin-and-diclectin.html

I ended up taking 8 diclectin a day for a lot of my last pregnancy. The last few months of pregnancy I was able to slowly wean off of it and took none the last couple of weeks.
Just like my brother and I, my baby has no birth defects.
It really is disapointing this drug was given a bad reputation.

I wish your daughter well!

Janet

CH said...

I took diclectin in 2011 for my entire pregnancy and my baby was born missing a kidney. I have no idea if it is related to taking diclectin or not. Now 9 weeks pregnant and suffering with sickness. Thinking about taking diclectin so I can function but am scared.

Janet said...

I'm sorry to hear about your baby missing a kidney.
Have you done any research to see what are the chances of this happening during a 'normal' pregnancy? (like no meds taken).
And researched to see if any other mom's had this happen while taking Diclectin?

I know that birth defects can and do happen for no apparent reasons, but also can be tied to specific things.
I can only speak from my experience and my mom's and our babies had no defects.

Consider contacting Mother Risk (link on my sidebar) and discuss this issue with them.

Consider taking Vitamin B6 by itself to see if that helps.