Diabetes, but not diabetes drug, linked to poor pregnancy outcomes

New research indicates that pregnant women with pre-gestational diabetes who take metformin are at a higher risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes—such as major birth defects and pregnancy loss—than the general population, but their increased risk is not due to metformin but diabetes.

The findings come from a British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology study including 471 women in the metformin group and 479 in the reference group.

"Our findings provide the first reassuring evidence that metformin might offer a cheaper and simpler alternative to insulin for the management of pregestational diabetes in pregnancy when effective," said lead author Dr. Alice Panchaud, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Lausanne University Hospital, and Geneva University.