CDC: antibiotics linked to birth defects

I was just thinking about this, how we're all on antibiotics so frequently we may forget, for instance, while trying to conceive--oops. I remember I had to go to the ER once for whate turned out to be high fever from my chronic fatigue syndrome--but what did the puzzled resident do? He assumed sinus infection and put me on antibiotics.

So use care when you're trying to conceive. Staying away from antibiotic-laden meat and eggs might be helpful, too.

MONDAY, Nov. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Taking antibiotics during pregnancy does not raise the risk for most birth defects, though there are some exceptions, new research has found.

Penicillin, which is the most commonly used antibiotic during pregnancy, as well as erythromycin, cephalosporins and quinolones, other widely prescribed antibiotics, were not associated with increased risk for about 30 different birth defects.

However, the study found that two types of antibiotics were linked with a higher risk for several birth defects: nitrofurantoins and sulfonamides, sometimes called "sulfa drugs," which are prescribed for urinary tract and other infections.

Women whose children had anencephaly, a fatal malformation of the skull and brain, were three times more likely to have taken sulfonamides, the study found. Sulfonamides were also tied to an increased risk for such heart defects as hypoplastic left heart syndrome and coarctation of the aorta, choanal atresia (a blockage of the nasal passage), transverse limb deficiency and diaphragmatic hernia, an abnormal opening in the diaphragm that results in severe breathing difficulties.