Another health risk that female patients are warned about in the
medical guide is the risk of damage to unborn babies. Because
everything that enters an expectant mother’s bloodstream also enters
the fetus’s bloodstream, when expectant mothers take
isotretinoin, the drug’s powerful effect can harm the developing
fetus.
According to the FDA, 35 percent of babies born to mothers
treated with the drug during their pregnancies are born with
birth defects. These defects include physical deformities, undeveloped
organs, blindness, and mental retardation. Isotretinoin
can also cause the death of the fetus before birth, premature births,
or the death of the newborn baby.
For this reason, the FDA prohibits the dispensation of isotretinoin
to pregnant women. In addition, female patients must
take two pregnancy tests before the drug can be prescribed, and
women are warned not to become pregnant while taking the drug.
Therefore, birth control is mandatory for sexually active women
taking isotretinoin, as are monthly pregnancy tests. In addition,
women are warned not to become pregnant for at least one month
after stopping use of isotretinoin, since it takes at least one month
for the drug to clear a person’s system. Afifteen-year-old who took
Accutane recalls her experience: “My doctor asked me if there’s any
chance I was pregnant—right in front of my mother. It was embarrassing
to go for the pregnancy test every month.”
Despite the controversy surrounding isotretinoin and the side
effects and possible health risks of other acne treatments, it is clear
that acne treatments can lessen acne symptoms and help people
have smoother, clearer skin. “Sure there were health risks,” a former
acne patient explains. “But I still can remember the teasing,
embarrassment, and humiliation the pimples caused. That was a
hundred times more dangerous and painful than anything any medicine
could possibly do to me. Getting treatment changed my life.”
