Pregnant, Have Ear Pain. What Can Be Used To Alleviate This?

Posted on Fri, 7 Jun 2013

Question: Hi Dr. Raichle, I am 37.5 weeks pregnant and I just got ear pain in my right ear. I have no sore throat, stuffy nose, fever or anything else. But my ears are weak and often times I could just get ear pain with no other symptoms of a cold. What could I use to alleviate it? I used to take some very effective eardrops before I was pregnant. They were called Furotalgin, and I would place 1-2 drops in the year, 1-2 times a day, and the pain would be gone in about 1-2 days. But I am not sure they are safe in pregnancy. They are only local though, without swallowing them, would you think they are safe to use? If not, are there some other type of eardrops to use?

I have tried tylenol etc in the past, but unless it's local eardrops, it does not seem to be very effective. Thanks

Answered by Dr. Timothy Raichle (4 hours later)

Hello and thank you very much for the directed question. I very much appreciate your trust in my answers.

Upon review of the eardrops that you mentioned, these should be completely safe to use during pregnancy. As far as why this is an issue is uncertain. Given that this has been a problem in the past means that it is almost certainly an exacerbation of an old problem, possibly made worse by pregnancy. I would recommend the following:
1. Someone needs to look in your ears and make sure that you do not have fluid buildup or an inner ear infection.
2. Discuss the eardrops with them - I can find no evidence that these would be harmful during pregnancy.
3. You can certainly take Tylenol during pregnancy, but I agree, this is not really treating the problem, but rather the pain FROM the problem

You can also safely take sudafed during pregnancy - assuming the dosing is for a very short time. Talk with your doctor about this as well.

I hope that this helps - please let me know!

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Timothy Raichle (2 hours later)

Thanks Dr. Raichle, that's great, I will take them then. Thanks for all your advice and guidance during my pregnancy.

Answered by Dr. Timothy Raichle (8 minutes later)

Thank you for the followup feedback. If you were a patient of mine, I would certainly feel comfortable with this medication. Just so your doctor is not left out of the loop, though, I would inform you clinic that you are going to use these drops just so they can keep your record updated in terms of medications used during the pregnancy.

Good luck!!

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar