Mevacor and Pregnancy

Because Mevacor can potentially cause harm to an unborn child, it is important to be aware of the risks of taking it during pregnancy. Mevacor is considered a pregnancy Category X medicine, which means it showed problems to the fetus in animal studies and in humans who had mistakenly taken the drug. Therefore, Mevacor is not recommended for women who are pregnant.

Mevacor Medication

If I'm Pregnant, Can I Take Mevacor?

Mevacor^® (lovastatin) is a pregnancy Category X medicine, meaning that it could potentially cause harm to your unborn child. Therefore, the drug is not recommended for women who are pregnant. If you are pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant, talk to your healthcare provider right away.

Mevacor and Pregnancy Category X

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) uses a category system to classify the possible risks to a fetus when a specific medicine is taken during pregnancy. Pregnancy Category X is the classification given to medicines that show problems to the fetus in animal studies or in humans that have taken the medicine. The use of a Category X medicine during pregnancy is not recommended.

Giving Mevacor to pregnant mice and rats produced skeletal malformations, but only at extremely high dosages. Other problems seen in newborn rats included decreased survival, slow weight gain, and delayed development.

There have been occasional reports of problems such as miscarriages or birth defects in humans that take statins such as Mevacor, but it does not appear that statins actually increase the risks of such problems (a certain number of miscarriages and birth defects will occur during pregnancies, even if no medications are taken).

Theoretically, statins could cause problems, since cholesterol is necessary for normal fetal development. However, because Mevacor provides no significant benefit during pregnancy and because there are theoretical risks, it is not recommended for use in pregnant women.

(Mevacor and Pregnancy Continued: Page 2)