ask: Is Retinol (in beauty products) harmful for pregnant women?

I can answer part of yoru question; hopefully someone else can answer the rest of it!

According to the Mayo Clinic, there is "unclear scientific evidence for this use [topical retinol for skin aging]". The topical Vitamin A (retinol is one type of Vitamin A) earned a "C" grade for the use of improving aging skin appearance and integrity.

The warnings regarding Vitamin A (Retinol) use that I found are related to one of the derivatives of Vitamin A, called retinoids, and are used to treat skin disorders such as acne. Specifically, the topical use of isotretinoin (Accutane®) can cause severe side effects and must not be used in women who are pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or have a chance of being pregnant due to a risk of severe birth defects.

In fact, the risk is so high for severe birth defects while using isotretinoin-containing products that women must sign a pledge that they will not become pregnant, they must pass two pregnancy tests before using the product, and must pledge to use two forms of birth control...wow...I've never seen anything like this warning: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a681043.html

It does make you wonder how safe this product is for any woman, right? Does anyone else know?

And, I realize this does not fully answer your question regarding all retinol-containing beauty products (as the Mayo Clinic specifically stated isotretinoin as "high risk", and not retinol in general).

Thanks for your question, free2Bme!

Alison is right, this is not a medication to be used in pregnancy but so are many other 'ok' medications we often take like ibuprofen - something one should also never take in pregnancy.

A growing baby in your uterus has different needs and different ways of absorbing medications - and when brain and lung development is in full gear, medications can be dangerous, whereas they are not in a fully developed adult.

Accutane (the pill version) is quite dangerous to an unborn baby whereas the topical version of Retinol is considered less so, due to the minimal absorption. However, it is still not recommended as a chance of harm to the baby is always there, no matter how minimal. Breastfeeding mothers should also be very cautious of any medications they are taking.

retinol is vitamin A ,and it is highly fat soluble so it can reach the fetus quickly through the placenta causing dangerous tertogenic effects like: heart defectsoral cleft, small or absent eyes & limbs reduction
so it must be avoided during pregnancy espially with ( valproic a , warfarin, isotretnoin) but it hasproven to be safe for unpregnant women unless you suffer from allergie

dr. leena abd el wahab

Just my two cent worth: all of you worried about retin A, don't be, unless you eat a whole tube(yes eat), you have nothing to fear. Retin a contains very little vitamin a in the form of tretinoin, What I would steer clear of and which NOBODY ever talks about are things like LIVER (full of retinol) and foie gras (duck liver pate, so yummy). that being said, I still have a "taste", a really teeny weeny one, but will skip my prenatal vitamin on that day (most prenatals contain a lot of vitamin A, in the form of retinol, instead of the better form, which is beta carotene).

I am so worrying right now:(:(:(
I am 14 week pregnant and was using ''Roc retinol anti stretch-marks cream' from almost first week of my pregnancy up to 12 week I was using this cream everyday for legs and bump:( so stupid i am :(
After huge research i know that oral wit A is worst but using creams like this its not good either:(
Cant find % of retinol in this cream on the box, had write to roc and waiting for answer.
Anyone from You had similar experience ?
Gret
xxxx

I found a credible source (Medscape)of information regarding retinol use in pregnancy, and here are the important pieces of information:
- "At most, topical retinoids, including tretinoin, adapalene, and tazarotene, deliver minuscule amounts of active ingredient into the circulation."
- "If trying to become pregnant or if pregnancy occurs, patients should discontinue topical retinoids."

Another source (sites credible medical journals for this information):
"When used topically, the teratogenic risk of tretinoin [a type of synthetic retinol] had been thought to be close to 0. According to one source, no cases of toxicity had been reported after nearly 20 years of use. In support of this, it has been estimated that even if maximal absorption (approximately 33%) occurred from a 1-g daily application of a 0.1% preparation, this would only result in about one-seventh of the vitamin A activity received from a typical prenatal vitamin supplement."

This information is just provided to give you piece of mind, as it is best to avoid the topical-use of retinol-containing products during pregnancy. It is the oral-administration of retinol that has been proven to cause severe birth defects.

Please let us know what the company and your doctor says!

I was worried about this as well because I was using Derma e's Vitamin E wrinkle gel on my belly and thighs for a previous pregnancy's stretch marks when I discovered I was pregnant (4 weeks.) I also use Olay's Regenerist line and use a daily multivitamin with 50% DV of A so I was pretty terrified. :)

But, I checked the FDA and they've done some research on the absorption rates of A through the skin and they line up with what Alison was saying: using the creams on your entire body every day is completely safe by one standard, and just over the limit on another:

" This value for total body application is greater
than the daily intake limit (5000 IU = 1.5 mg) recommended by the
FDA for women of child-bearing age, but less than the daily intake
limit (8000 IU= 2.4 mg) recommended by the Teratology Society"

(again, this is for using it on your entire body each day at 1% creme, higher than most body creams.)

And using it only on your face and hands puts you at merely 10% of the upper limit for pregnant women, and this doesn't account for sweating, washing, and clothing rubbing it off, meaning we're probably just fine. :)

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ScienceResearch/SpecialTopics/WomensHealthR...

(there are a lot of stats and methods discussions in the beginning; I found the most useful information in the "discussion" towards the end.)