Video:How to Treat Acne During Pregnancy

Transcript:How to Treat Acne During Pregnancy

Hi this is Dr. Debra Jaliman, a board-certified dermatologist in New York City and author of the book Skin Rules: Trade Secrets from a Top New York Dermatologist, here for About.com to talk about treatments for acne during pregnancy.

Not all Over-the-Counter Products are Safe to Use During Pregnancy

Pregnancy is a very special time of your life and you have to be very careful about what treatments you use during pregnancy. Many people think that because a treatment is over the counter, it's safe to use during pregnancy, and that just isn't so.

Acne Products that Should Not be Used During Pregancy

For example, Salicylic Acid is not safe to use during pregnancy. Why is that? I'm sure you know that you're not allowed to take aspirin when you're pregnant and salicylic acid is closely related to aspirin. As a matter of fact, there are many things you can't use when you're pregnant. For example, we don't recommend that you use benzoyl peroxide either. Something that you should never use during pregnancy is retinol. Retinol is related to Vitamin A and that is totally unsafe during pregnancy and it is over-the-counter.

Don't have any laser treatments during pregnancy, because there are lasers that are FDA approved for acne, but they're not approved during pregnancy. Many of the prescription medications that we use for acne are not approved during pregnancy, so there's a whole host of retinoids that are not approved for pregnancy, a whole host of antibiotics, for example the tetracycline antibiotics are not approved for pregnancy. 

We also don't use accutane during pregnancy because that can cause birth defects and is very unsafe during pregnancy.

Acne Products that are Safe During Pregancy

So what do we really think is safe? We like pregnant patients to use sonic cleansing systems. What the sonic cleansing systems do is they actually vibrate out the dead skin cells, and they vibrate out the bacteria. Another thing you can use during pregnancy very safely is glycolic acid. Glycolic acid helps to unclog the pores. Sometimes we use topical antibiotics and there's one that's considered safe during pregnancy, it is a prescription, but it's an erythromycin topical gel, it also comes in a liquid. We also use injections of hydrocortisone for people that really have bad cysts during their pregnancy.

Another thing that's safe during pregnancy is to have a facial to clean out the blackheads and whiteheads that you may get during your pregnancy. So if you're thinking of using any products during pregnancy, it's best if you call your obstetrician/gynecologist and check with them before using any medications.

If you have any other questions, go to About.com.