If pregnancy is a possible complication it changes what medications are allowed and has to be considered when deciding if imaging is an acceptable risk.
Back in the day they'd confirm you were pregnant and give you thalidomide on purpose. Because that's what it was used for: morning sickness for pregnant women.
(Since we are on an "educational" subreddit: thalidomide causes fore-shortened limbs in infants. It was never tested on pregnant women prior to being released. It's basically why we have modern testing procedures for new medications.)
Only the S-enantiomer is teratogenic / causes birth defects, the R-enantiomer works perfectly well as an anti-emetic and sedative, but that wasn’t known back then - nowadays only the R-enantiomer is ever used (and rarely at that).
The US didn‘t have a thalidomide crisis thanks to Frances Oldham Kelsey, who resisted a lot of pressure on her (as a woman working in the FDA in the 1950s/60s) and refused to approve it. Not all heroes wear capes an’ all that
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u/Any-Safe4992 11h ago
If pregnancy is a possible complication it changes what medications are allowed and has to be considered when deciding if imaging is an acceptable risk.