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Depression/Anxiety Supplements while TTC and Pregnant

2K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  drjkf 
#1 ·
Hi, Jennifer!

I know you can't give specific medical advice, so I'll try to keep my question general. I'm currently taking several supplements for general health (multi, fish oil, etc.) and some supplements to curb anxiety and depression (5-htp, St. John's Wort, L-theanine and inositol). This plan works really well for me where drugs have not; it's possible that the benefit outweighs the risk here... but I can't seem to figure out what the risk is with these, if any.

Please comment on the risks of taking any of these if you can. If I need to or choose to go off of these supplements, can you recommend any replacements that are known to be safe for conception and pregnancy?

And if I choose to wean off of something, when should I stop taking it? We've been TTC for six months and since it could be six more, I'd prefer to wait until I'm actually pregnant unless that's too risky.

Thanks!
 
#2 ·
Such a challenge to figure out, isn't it? I am not a midwife and thus do not have expertise on advising on supplementation in pregnancy beyond prenatal multivitamins and folic acid. But, I have reached out to some naturopathic midwife colleagues on this. I will let you know when I hear from them.

Warmly,

Dr. Jennifer
 
#3 ·
From a naturopathic midwife colleague:

L-theanine: haven't been able to find any studies on safety in pregnancy but might consider green tea which contains theanine in it--not sure if the decaf version is the same

Hypericum: human studies are lacking; rat studies seem to be promising but correlation with humans is often not exact; caution is warranted until further study

5-htp: not to be used during pregnancy or lactation--most likely this caution is from prior contamination of tryptophan and problems with EMS although there have been no cases of EMS linked to 5-htp b/c the extraction process is entirely different.

inositol---I use it with fertility patients to help with insulin sensitivity and possible PCOS but usu. have women stop it once pregnant. unsure of full safety profile---but B-vitamin family...
 
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