answer 1
Do not use retinol while pregnant. It has nothing to do with making your skin more sensitive to sun, although you can get pigmentation while pregnant (just use sunscreen), retinol is vitamin A and too much of it can cause birth defects. This is really a better to be safe than sorry situation. Wait until after you deliver then start a retinol product. They're safe while breastfeeding. I'm 34 weeks pregnant and plan on using Help Me right after the baby is born!
answered 2 years, 5 months ago
answer 2
From what I've read, the precautions against using retinol products while pregnant do not apply when breastfeeding. Check with your Dr. for sure, but most health resources will say that a topical retinol product used while nursing is excreted in such small amounts in the breastmilk that it is considered safe.
answered 3 years, 5 months ago
answer 3
in addition to making your skin possibly more sensitive, retinol has been linked with birth defects. whatever you put on your skin gets absorbed into your bloodstream: if you are pregnant this will be absorbed through the placenta/umbilical cord and into the baby, if you are lactating, this will be extruded through breastmilk. the theory is that since too much vitamin a taken during pregnancy can cause birth defects, so can retinol (which is a form of vit. a). hope this helps!
answered 3 years, 5 months ago
answer 4
It's because retinol and AHAs take a layer off your skin, which makes you less resistant to sun damage, and when you're pregnant you're more sensitive to the sun. The combination is sort of a double-whammy. Pregnant women, or women on the pill, sometimes get large brown blotches from the sun, and from what I've heard they don't go away. However, I was on the pill for almost 10 years, and I used AHAs vigorously the whole time and never had a problem. I used this near the end of my pill stint, even in the daytime before I heard that wasn't recommended, and I didn't have any problems then. I would say, go ahead and use it as a night treatment - just make sure you use sunscreen in the day (a great one is PTR's mineral sunscreen - it brushes on like a powder, protects really well, and is small enough to carry everywhere). Good luck and congratulations!
answered 3 years, 8 months ago
weaselberries
(Oakdale, MN)