Hyperemesis Gravidarum Support and Research Forums

Hi, if you have had a hg pg and live outside of the US. I'd like to get a list together of medications used. Hopefully this could be a starting point for others to talk with their doctors.

Traci

What medications did you take?
How did you get them?

I'll start:

Traci, in Japan - couldn't find much here!!
zantac (ranitidine), pepto-bismol,tums - bought by friend at US naval base

diclectin (doxylamine and pyridoxine)- via Canada (Murray shore) thanks to a prescription from a doctor at an international clinic in Tokyo
- purchased over the counter in Spain by friends there

maxolon (metocloprmide) - prescription from Australia when there

restavit (doxylamine) - over the counter in Australia

gravol (dimenhydrinate) suppositories - sent by friend in canada, available over the counter

hi, I am in New Zealand. I've had 2 HG pregnanies. There is not alot of medication they will give you here. my specialist put me on Maxalon for nausea and Losec for heartburn and that was it. I asked about various meds I had read about from the states but he would not even consider it as he said they had not been tested here for safety.
I have been reading alot about phenergen on this site. is that the same med that we have here for kids? it is used for motion sickness and allergies, and for making kids sleep when you are desperate
is it safe to take in pregnancy as we cannot give it to kids under 2 here?

Well I have had the experience of being pregnant in the US, Canada and Australia. Here are the drugs I was given in each place.

US (in 2001) Unisom and Vitamin B6, when that didn't work Reglan (metoclopramide) and Vistaril

Canada (in 2001) when I lived there for the last 3 months of my pregnancy the doctor offered me diclectin (which is the same as Unisom and B6). I really found that the Canadian doctors and pharmacists think this is an amazing cure all drug. In my experience - it didn't work at all - not even in early pregnancy. Doctors there seemed very unwilling to prescribe anything else for me.
Also I just returned to Canada for a visit during my second pregnancy (in 2004) and I had a letter from my Australian OB explaining that I am on Zofran due to hyperemesis and I was able to get a prescription for it in Canada but not without diffictulty.

Australia (2004) I was hospitalized for my 2nd pregnancy extremely early and was in really bad shape. The re-hydration wasn't working and I was really ill. The doctors tried Maxalon (same as Reglan - metoclopramide), they tried phenergan (which I believe is an antihistamine) and Zofran - thank god! The Zofran worked wonders for me and this pregnancy has been almost normal for me thanks to Zofran. The only problem is getting my GP to refill my prescription. I had to get my OB who I only see every few appointments to write a letter for me and I'm still having trouble.

keep hearing about this Zofran.Am so glad to hear that its available in Australia.Have just found out that I'm pg AGAIN.My dauughter is only 6mths old & am aprox 6wks pg now.Vomitting started today and am eager to get a prescription of zofran ASAP.Am keeping my fingers crossed that it will provide some relief as i cannot bear the thought of going thru another 9mths of torture; (this time with a baby to take care of ).

I know this post is older but felt like add my pills to the miX!
I am in Canada and they have given me Diclectin, gravol, maxeran, zantac and B6 tabs. That is my daily list! My GP gave me Diclectin (4 tabs) but didn't know of any other I could take. So when I was admitted to the hospital they put me on these wonderful meds and upped my diclectin to 8 tabs a day. On the upside, my GP took notes and looked in to the meds so his next HGer wouldn't have to suffer as much!
Erin

Hi,

I was given cyclizine during my first pregnancy, but found it quite in-effective.

If anyone else lives in the UK and can offer advice or assistance, I would be extremely greatful as we are considering baby #2 and to be honest, I am scared stiff of doing it again.

My plan is to be as well informed and ready, with list of drugs and info for doctors, as I possibly can be.

Virginia xxxx

Hi Virginia

There are a couple of us on here from the UK. We are also considering ttc no. 2 and are also scared stiff!

I would definitely recommend having a look around the Preparation for HG forum and lifting off as many helpful tips from other people's protocols as you can.

Feel free to contact me - you can pm me through this website.

Best wishes

Natalie

Hi,

I get all my meds from the US military hospital on base, but my Spanish friends say that all the Spanish women take Carriban for vomiting/nausea in pregnancy. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find out what is in it, or what it's equiavalent too.

J&Jmom wrote:Hi,

I get all my meds from the US military hospital on base, but my Spanish friends say that all the Spanish women take Carriban for vomiting/nausea in pregnancy. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find out what is in it, or what it's equiavalent too.

I used cariban. I can't find my empty packet at the moment. It is a formulation of doxylamine and pyridoxine (unisom and B6) but I don't have the actual dosages. I believe they are the same or similar to diclectin which you can get in Canada but not the US. Diclectin is a small tablet whereas cariban is a slightly larger capsule. The packaging said to take one or two a day but I took more than that (followed the schedule I had been using with diclectin). They were very cheap to purchase - over the counter at any pharmacy. It would be worth getting a packet to try. I have heard that it is widely used and the limited google search I did (in Spanish using the google translations) confirmed that.

It worked well on my nausea. I know many find unisom and b6 doesn't touch the vomiting.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you get some so we can compare dosages/formulations.

With my first pregnancy, I took Diclectin, Maxeran, Gravol and Ranitidine. I was given a prescription for Diclectin and Maxeran by my doctor and Gravol and Ranitidine were available over the counter.

For this next pregancy for which I am preparing, I plan to take all the same medications again as well as possiblely trying Stemitil and Ondansetron (Zofran). These two medications would also be prescribed by my doctor.

Joanna

Hi

With my first pgy, I had Stemitil (Supp) and Avomine.

With my next pregnancy I plan to fight for Zofran which you CAN get over here!!!

Natalie, x

Hi, I'm Hannah from Australia.

I've been on Maxalon (metaclopramide), Stemetil (didn't touch the nausea), and Zofran. Got them all through my OB and local pharmacy.

Hi,

I see this is on old posting, but I thought I'd still add my info. I live in Australia and had two HG pregnancies. Here is my meds history:

Pregnancy One:

Maxalon - didn't help
Stemetil - didn't help
Phenergan - didn't help and hurt like hell when injected into my veins
Vitamin B6 - didn't help
Zantac/Ranitidine - helped a little bit
Ginger - made things worse
Zofran/Ondansatron - helped a lot at 8mg twice a day.


Pregnancy Two:

Stemetil - helped a little
Accupuncture - didn't help
Zofran - helped a lot at 8mg twice a day
Droperidol - helped a lot, but could only be administered in hospital intravenously. It can lower your blood pressure and therefore you must be under medical supervision while taking it.
Mertazapine - helped a lot.

Fortunately, my OB had no problems with prescribing me as much Zofran as my heart desired. I don't know if I could have coped otherwise.

Judy

Hi, I'm in NZ and like someone else said getting meds here is really hard.

In my 1st pg I had:
maxalon, stemitil, cyclizine (which kills your veins), pyridoxine - none heped at all. Ginger helped for about 3 hours and now if I smell it I start reaching. Only thing to work was Zofran!

2nd pg (different Dr's/hospital): maxalon, stemitil - wouldn't work. Demanded Zofran which worked wonders!

Zofran here has not been approved for pregnancy but you can get with a fight. The Govt will subsidise 6 tabs per month and the rest you pay for around $20-30 per 8mg tablet.

We have just started ttc and are saving up for Zofran.

Trudy

I'm in Australia (I have been through most options and meds avail in Australia and am happy to talk to anyone via email if you want to ask q's)

B6
Zinc

maxolon (metocloprmide) - prescription from GP (I didn't find it helped)

Stemetil - Ob administered (I had a bad reaction)

avomine - prescription from GP (I didn't find it helped)

restavit (doxylamine) - over the counter in Australia

zofran tablets and wafers - i found the wafers easier and same price, very expensive costing me roughly $400 a week on 32mg a day. Most effective of all treatments tried. Ob prescribed after i went with Info still had to bargain for the higher dose though, then GP was happy to prescribe it for me after OB did.
*Tip if you're planning to TTC interview a few OB's and find out who's willing to be proactive or may have treated others with HG and check their attitude (makes a huge difference when you're pregnant and sick). *If you go straight through the public hospital system and get prescribed zofran while admitted they will usually pay for it.

Prednisone (steroids) tapering dose - OB prescribed


It's been awhile since I was around, almost a year since I was active on the boards before they moved over here. Hi to everyone.
Lily is 19 months now and I am studying to be a midwife.

Best wishes
Satyam (Honey)
honeyfrog@bigpond.com

This is a very interesting topic.

My experience is all from a country town in Victoria, Australia

I started on maxolon in week 9. It didn't help, I started losing weight at this point.

My second visit to emergency in hospital got me checked in. It was week 12 and I had lost 14% of my body weight. I had potassium in my IV (not a drug, but wow!), B6 tablets and maxolon through my IV. At this point I was told to stay absolutely horizontal for at least 10-15 minutes after they gave me the IV Maxolon. I stopped vomitting stomach acid, but still couldn't keep any water or very much food down. Then they started me on prednisolone (steroids - "C class drug" in Australia, which means not advised during pregnancy here)

I stayed on the steroids for about 4 weeks, still taking the B6 and Maxolon (continuing the horizontal theory from hospital). I stopped losing weight. Once I'd had a week off the steroids I had a good day (wrote it down in my appointment diary! ) and tried taking myself off the maxolon as well. I had a major crash that took some time to recover from. I then stayed on the Maxolon until the end of the pregnancy.

My drug plan for this time is:

Maxolon as soon as I start being sick
Start B6 at first visit to hospital emergency
Potassium at second visit to emergency
Steroids at third visit (which will be a check in until I'm stable visit)

I'm hoping that I won't need to go to Zofran.

Good Luck to all



Amanda

I just got out of the prenatal special care unit here at the IWK Heath Center in Nova Scotia.

After some trial and error with my IV's over the past week and a half, I am now on an oral concoction of Zofran, Zantac, Diclectin, and otc Gravol. It seems to be working so far but I'm only 7 weeks. Maxeran did nothing for me. You can get Zofran here in Canada but they are very reluctant to prescribe it because of it's cost... ~$700 for 60 tabs. Luckily my drug plan covers it with no questions asked and nothing else was working to control my nausea/vomiting.

M

Hi gardeningmouse,

Just wanted to welcome you to the site! I'm from Canada too - but from clear across the country in Vancouver! I'm glad your doctor was able to find some drugs that would help you and that your drug plan covered the Zofran! Take it easy and I hope you feel better soon.

Joanna

After many other unsuccessful medications, I was taking Zofran, Ativan, Haloperidol and Ranitidine, with ocassional administering of Valium or Pethadine when things spiralled severely. This was in Singapore and in Australia.

i took promethazine when i was pregnant with my secon child , which helped me , for the hear burn it was gaviscon liquid which didnt help at all as soon as i took it it was vomating time again , its a catch 22 situation.[/img]