GLP-1 drugs appear safe to use during early pregnancy
Taking GLP-1s during the first trimester of pregnancy does not appear to increase the risk of adverse outcomes, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The study was published June 9 in Annals of Internal Medicine. Jeremy Brown, a research collaborator with CAUSALab, was the corresponding author. Sonia Hernández-Díaz, professor of epidemiology, was a co-author.
While it is recommended that women discontinue GLP-1s before pregnancy, the drugs’ increasingly widespread use means that inadvertent exposure during the first trimester is becoming more common. “The increase in potential exposure in recent years is apparent from our study, in which, among a broader cohort of more than 2.1 million pregnancies, the prevalence of GLP-1 dispensing in the 90 days prior to the last menstrual period and conception increased from 2 per 1,000 in 2020 to 15 per 1,000 in 2024,” Brown explained.
Still, evidence on the safety of GLP-1s during pregnancy is limited. In that context, the researchers examined the insurance claims of nearly 3,600 women with type 2 diabetes taking GLP-1s, some of whom continued to do so during the first trimester of pregnancy and some of whom stopped. They compared the outcomes of each category of pregnancy, assessing the risk of non-live birth, major congenital malformations, and abnormal fetal growth.
The study found that the risks of these adverse outcomes was similar with or without GLP-1 exposure during the first trimester. For example, the risk of pregnancy loss among women who continued with their GLP-1 early in pregnancy was 29.7%, compared to 27.1% among women who discontinued their GLP-1.
Brown noted that, without this new evidence, some women taking GLP-1s might consider terminating otherwise wanted pregnancies out of safety concerns. But, he said, “These findings provide some reassurance regarding risks of adverse pregnancy outcomes following unintentional GLP-1 exposure in early pregnancy.”
He added, however, that the study doesn’t shed light on the safety of GLP-1 use past the first trimester. “Most of the continuers received only one further dispensation of their GLP-1, so our findings are not informative about safety for sustained use in pregnancy,” he said.
Read a HealthDay article about the study: New Study Suggests No Major Adverse Outcomes With Early GLP-1 Exposure During Pregnancy
