Pregnancy Breastfeeding And Fertility While Taking Clonidine

Clonidine and pregnancy

Clonidine is not recommended during pregnancy as little information is available on whether it's safe for the baby. Speak to your doctor, who will be able to suggest an alternative to clonidine to use during pregnancy.

If you're trying to get pregnant talk to your doctor about the benefits and possible harms of taking clonidine.

If you think you may be pregnant, or are already pregnant, get advice from your doctor as soon as possible. This is particularly important if you're taking clonidine to control blood pressure, since stopping it may cause your blood pressure to rise.

Clonidine and breastfeeding

It might be OK to take clonidine while breastfeeding but talk to your doctor or pharmacist first. It's best not to take clonidine if your baby was born prematurely, but your doctor will help you decide.

There is not much information about taking clonidine while breastfeeding, but information shows that small amounts of clonidine pass into breast milk. This is unlikely to cause side effects in your baby, but we do not know yet for certain.

Your doctor might recommend a different medicine for you to take while breastfeeding.

Clonidine might make you feel sleepy, so it's important not to share a bed with your baby while you're taking it.

If you take clonidine while breastfeeding, talk to your health visitor, midwife, pharmacist or doctor as soon as possible if you have any concerns, including if your baby:

is not feeding as well as usual
seems unusually sleepy
seems much paler than usual

Clonidine and fertility

There's no evidence that clonidine affects fertility in either men or women.

Tell your doctor if you're:

trying to get pregnant
pregnant
breastfeeding

Sexual Health Advice

Throughout this series we have help and advice on staying healthy, dealing with Sexually Transmitted Infections, the risks of each type of the most popular gay sex and what to do if the sex you have is not consentual. The topics covered in this series include:

	This item was in brought to you association with NHS website. Follow the links above for more information and don't forget to check out OutUK's A to Z of Gay Health which features items on everything from relationships, sexual health, mental and physical conditions and how to stay fit. This week our topic is: L - Lung Cancer.
Photos: OutUK and LightFieldStudios.