Suggest Treatment For Nausea And Black Diarrhea During Pregnancy

Posted on Thu, 27 Apr 2017

Question: Im 29 weeks pregnant, mild anemia, 150 lb. on ferractiv amino acid chelate 150 mg for week. I have black diarrhea, nausea, little higher thirst. do I need to go to er? is this an immediate threat to my baby?

Answered by Dr. Purushottam Neurgaonkar (38 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Don't worry. Stop iron preparation.

Detailed Answer:
Hi there. I have understood your concern and I will suggest you to the best possible treatment options.

First of all do not panic.

l would like to know from you, if you have any past history of taking any iron preparation in the past and any symptoms of oral iron intolerance?

Secondly, as per your history, your symptoms look like iron preparation induced diarhea.
In such situations I usually suggest to stop the iron preparation for a week and observe if the symptoms regress. If there is no improvement then please seek help from your treating gynecologist.

I would like to assure you that it will not affect your baby in any manner. Neither stopping the iron preparation for a week will affect your health drastically.

I hope this answer helps you.
Thanks.
Dr.
Purushottam Neurgankar.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Remy Koshy

Follow up: Dr. Purushottam Neurgaonkar (1 hour later)

Thank you, sir. I was taking a curry leaf based iron supplement for a few weeks, about 90 mg. It did not have a great effect on my heme levels. Actually I think they stayed about the same. I was told I needed a higher dose and that food based iron is hard to gauge absorption. I was trying to stay with more natural sources of iron so I switched to the RainbowLight ferractiv amino acid chelate a week ago and no one at the ob seemed to know a good dosage for me. They are unfamiliar with it. I got startled by it though.

Answered by Dr. Purushottam Neurgaonkar (55 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Change iron salt.Consider intravenous iron therapy.

Detailed Answer:
Hi there.
Thanks for appreciating the answer and reverting back.

This is what I could guess from your history.
Initially you were on plant based iron preparation.
You were tolerating it well .
But It was not sufficient for your needs.
So you were advised the new iron preparation.
After starting it , you started getting black diarhea.

I suppose I am right in my guess.

I will suggest that you stop the iron preparation at present. If your diarhea is due iron intolerance then your symptoms should improve once you stop taking the iron.

In that case , you will need to consider the options of using some other iron salt like Ferrous sulphate, that gets quickly absorbed and might give you less trouble.
If not then you can consider intravenous iron preparation as per your need of hemoglobin.
Your treating gynecologist will help you in his regards.
I hope this answer helps you.
Thanks.
Dr. Purushottam Neurgankar.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Kampana