Diflucan in pregnancy???

big_bump332

I believe I have a yeast infection (after being “misdiagnosed” with a UTI and being put on antibiotics and having a severe reaction to those) so the doctor at urgent care prescribed me one pill of diflucan and told me it was safe to use but I see it has been linked to birth defects. Has anyone else had experience with or taken this medicine in pregnancy? 

fertile-turtle

Call your OB and see what they recommend. According to the FDA, a single dose is considered relatively safe during pregnancy, but there’s a safety vs efficacy consideration that I don’t think any of us are qualified to make. Your OB will have a lot of experience treating yeast infections specifically in pregnant people, and so can make the best recommendation. They may also have you come in, which can be annoying but they may want to confirm that you don’t have a UTI at all (which is an initial “dip test” followed by a culture that takes 24-48 hours to get back) and diagnose the yeast infection themselves, since relying on other doctors’ diagnoses can be risky and other things like bacterial vaginosis are easy to misdiagnose when you’re trying to figure out your own symptoms.

It’s also possible that you did/do have a UTI but need a different antibiotic, and that the antibiotics gave you a yeast infection so now you have both. I’ve been through that while not pregnant, and it landed me in the hospital on IV antibiotics, so I’d recommend checking with a doctor you trust and letting them run any necessary tests to avoid having a really bad time. And untreated/undertreated UTIs can lead to miscarriage or preterm labor, so it’s worth getting extra opinions and keeping your OB provider up to date even if you couldn’t get in when you first had symptoms.

big_bump332

Thank you! I’m mostly just so confused, I’ve had dipstick tests done and come back positive for white blood cells so they say it’s a uti and then culture says no bacteria so they take me off of antibiotic. I’ve been in three different antibiotics in the past few months and I’ve had moderate to severe reactions to all of them. I’m still waiting on results from my most recent culture but no one will get back with me. I’m in the process of switching OB beciase I just moved. I’m just so frustrated and wish I knew what was going on

fertile-turtle

@knottie oof, it sucks to be dealing with this in between providers. You definitely want to call and get in with a new provider quickly though. Urgent cares are great but with something like this where it’s not clear what’s happening, you want to keep seeing the same provider or at least the same office for continuity of care or else you’re going to keep playing whack-a-mole. Not because this is necessarily something super serious, but because the symptoms you’re having could be a reaction to other treatments or whatever and a more systematic approach with follow ups and a more consistency from your provider could really help figure it out.

Also, depending on the antibiotics, they could be different but related, and the fact that you s been seeing different doctors could contribute to them missing it.

The WBCs with negative cultures is also something I’ve dealt with. The test also looks for nitrites, so if it’s positive for both WBCs and nitrites, it’s probably a UTI, if it’s just WBCs no nitrites it could be an atypical UTI or you could just be weird like me and always have a little hematuria (blood in urine). It’s also more common if you’re dehydrated and dehydration symptoms can mirror mild UTI symptoms. A referral to a urologist can get to the bottom of it eventually, but that also takes time and they may not want to do some tests while you’re pregnant.