Circe wrote:
Vicky Bilaniuk wrote:

OK, I would love to know what you all think of pregnancy and asthma,
and, in particular, advair. When I talked to my doctor about
pregnancy, he never mentioned anything about the advair that I use,
but I have recently been wondering about it. I suffer from mild but
persistent side effects


Out of curiosity, what side effects? I have been using it for about 6 months
and haven't had any problems at all.

Dry mouth, hoarse voice, increased heart rate, and I seem to suffer from
bronchitis and/or pneumonia more often while on the drug than while off
of it. Actually, these are symptoms from the inhaled steroid component
of the drug. I used to take Flovent (fluticasone by itself, basically),
and I had the same side effects. They are irritating. Actually, while
on Flovent, I also used to get candidiasis a lot, but luckily I don't
with Advair (I have been using a lower dose and have also learned to
rinse my mouth more thoroughly). I think it might also be affecting my
nose a bit, but it's hard to tell because my nose is always irritated by
*something*. ;-) If you haven't noticed any side effects yet, you're
probably lucky. I think that most people notice the side effects right
away, if they're going to suffer from any. (the only questionable one
is the lung infection one, which takes time) I can't remember if I
mentioned this in my original post or not, but... I've been on Advair
for as long as it's been on the Canadian market, which I think is about
2 or 3 years, now.


I'd take it now if I were ever pregnant again. Why? Because last July I
suffered a severe asthma attack that affected my large airways. I couldn't
breathe, my heart stopped, and I was resuscitated by CPR with only minutes
to spare before either death or brain damage would have been the result.
Under the circumstances, I think Advair is a LOT safer than the alternative!

Wow, scary stuff. I'm glad that you're OK. Did you ever suffer an
attack before? I've had asthma for most of my life, but I've never
suffered an actual attack (this made diagnosis kind of hard). I just
have constant inflammation and increased phlegm, but my airways tend to
stay open. (oh and whenever I get a case of bronchitis or pneumonia, I
tend to get some annoying drug resistant bug that tends to show up
mainly in asthmatics and other people with lung disease) I've spent
most of my asthmatic life unmedicated, because I just don't like taking
meds if the illness isn't that bad (and in my case, it isn't). I've
only recently been taking meds because of the introduction of new
products such as advair. IOW, I'm willing to give new stuff a try. ;-)
I still would prefer to be drug free, though.