Hi everyone, I’m currently 32 weeks pregnant and started taking TDF at 20 weeks due to a high viral load. Within just four weeks of starting the medication, my baby’s growth dropped significantly—from the 50th percentile to the 15th, and now at 32 weeks, it’s down to the 13th percentile.
Since then, I’ve increased my calorie intake and made a conscious effort to include more nutrient-dense foods in my diet to try and offset any impact the medication may be having on the baby’s growth. I’m really anxious and hoping my baby doesn’t become growth restricted.
Has anyone else gone through something similar while taking TDF during pregnancy? I’d be so grateful to hear your experiences—was your baby born with a normal weight or did they have low birth weight?
The one reassuring part is that my viral load is now close to undetectable, but I’m still really worried and would deeply appreciate any insights from those who’ve been through this.
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Hi @Kisscurl,
Thanks for sharing your story and sorry to hear about your situation. It must be really stressful for you and your family.
I’ll let mothers talk to you about their own experience, but just wanted to provide some moderate size studies (400-1000 people) and meta-analyses that show that TDF is not associated with any detectable clinically-significant differences in fetal growth or development:
Happy to have any additional comments from @HealthExperts or @ScienceExperts on this.
Cheers,
Thomas
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Agree
There is extensive data on safety and recommended by most experts
FYI We published a review article
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/liv.15249
best
Carla
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Hi @ Kisscurl
From your concerns about intrauterine growth retardation(IUGR) which results in small for gestational age(SGA) infant after delivery. First of all , we have to look at the diagnosis of SGA and what tools are used for diagnosis. If using ultrasound, it will be more reliable and can be followed up better than measuring with fundal height of uterus from abdominal palpation.
In case of IUGR , your doctor will find out about the causes which may be caused by maternal underlying factors or fetal or uterine environmental factors.However, rates of growth among fetuses may vary between case by case and even the fetus is small, they are mostly healthy and have no increased risks of complications after delivery. Most SGA infants will catch up growth as the healthy full term infant at 2-3 years of age if they have no other serious diseases or congenital anomalies.Eating well balanced diet during pregnancy especially Mediterranean diet is highly recommended in maternal pregnancy with high risk conditions eg. Diabetes, Hypertension even in normal pregnancy.
The issue that you’re worried about effects of TDF starting from 20 weeks of pregnancy to your baby.
In my experiences with PMTCT for HBV (iTAP1 and iTAP2 PHPT projects 2013-2021) clinical trials for TDF started at 28wk of pregnancy versus placebo to prevent perinatal transmission of HBV at Chiangrai hospital, Thailand . We followed up the infant growth for weight, height and head circumference at birth and 6 months of age, the results showed no significant differences between infant in TDF group and placebo group.
I hope this may help you .
chul_chan
Chulapong Chanta. MD. Pediatrics
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