Wrinkle Injections and Dermal Fillers Whilst Pregnant
Start researching anti-winkle injections or dermal fillers on the net, and you’ll find plenty of information about how safe they both are. Wrinkle Injections certainly trump the invasive procedure of getting a facelift in safety, and dermal fillers are made of a substance that occurs naturally in your body, so in some cases are superior to wrinkle injections. However, one time of life when you can’t predict the safety of everyday events is pregnancy. Cold meats are off limits, sprays for blocked noses are unsafe, and don’t even think about eating camembert! Wrinkle injections and dermal fillers are certainly safe – but are they safe during pregnancy? We find out.
What the doctors say
The general consensus among medical professionals, as well as licensed cosmetologists, seems to be:
• There is no conclusive evidence that either wrinkle injections or dermal fillers are unsafe for pregnant women
• However, it is universally better to leave non-essential procedures until after pregnancy and lactation have finished, just to be sure.
• Around 90% of medical respondents have said that they would not give wrinkle injectiond for cosmetic reasons, because of insurance and liability issues.
• However, people that need BTXA to treat variants of dystonia (muscle spasms) can still get the treatment from a GP, as the potential benefits outweighthe risk
What the prescribing information says
Here is what the prescription information leaflet that comes along with Botox in the US says:
“There are no adequate and well-controlled studies of BOTOX® in pregnant women. Because animal reproductive studies are not always predictive of human response, BOTOX® should be administered during pregnancy only if the potential benefit justifies the potential risk to the fetus… Additionally, it’s not known whether BOTOX® is excreted in human breast milk. Because many drugs are excreted in human milk, caution should be exercised when BOTOX® is administered to a nursing woman.”
The animal studies they were referring to showed some upsetting results at very high doses, including spontaneous abortions, fetal malformations and maternal toxicity. Rat and mouse fetuses had reduced birth weights and delayed ossification of the skeleton. However, you must remember that researchers were pushing the limits of dosage to see what would be achieved – normal human doses translate to a much, much smaller dose per gram of body weight.
Why are wrinkle injections and dermal fillers lumped together?
It can seem a little over-the-top … perhaps even a little paranoid (!) to class dermal fillers, made of naturally occurring hyaluronic acid, with botulinum toxin, one of the most lethal substances known to man.
However, there’s a valid reason for this. The reason that Botox and dermal fillers aren’t considered ‘safe’ during pregnancy is because there is almost no scientific data available on either of them. There’s a possibility that hyaluronic acid may be degraded into a product that’s harmful to fetuses or breastfeeding babies – we just don’t know, and that’s the reason that the two substances are categorized together.
Breastfeeding and wrinkle injections
If you are breastfeeding, many cosmetologists and doctors will also tell you to hold off on the dermal fillers or wrinkle injections until you have finished. This is because many drugs are excreted into human breastmilk, and we don’t know whether dermal fillers or wrinkle injections are among those, and if so what risk they pose.
However, some pundits advise ‘taking a break from breastfeeding’ to have your dermal fillers done … and women need to understand that if you have a four-day break from breastfeeding, you will be having an infinite break from breastfeeding! Your body will assume the baby has finished feeding, and stop producing milk. So … just wait until you were going to stop breastfeeding anyway.
The conclusion?
Whether you have access to wrinkle injections or dermal fillers during pregnancy will depend on the policy of the individual doctors or cosmetic clinics involved. There are almost no cosmetic or medical professionals that will give either wrinkle injections or dermal fillers for cosmetic purposes during pregnancy. Take heart, though – the water you retain during pregnancy can often help with wrinkles anyway!