Is It Safe to Get Wrinkle-Relaxing Injections While Pregnant?

When you find out you’re pregnant, planning out your next neurotoxin injection is probably not top of mind. However, the question might arise while you’re worrying about single thing you eat, put on your skin, or are exposed to. While it may not be your first thought, we know you have questions. We’ve gathered up top expert injectors who can clear up any misinformation and share when the best time will be to stop, pause or resume your injections. 

Can you get neurotoxin injections while pregnant?

All expert injectors will tell you the same thing. No! “Neurotoxin has been around for more than 20 years,” notes West Palm Beach, FL dermatologist Kenneth Beer, MD. “During that time a lot of women got pregnant or were pregnant when they got injections and there has never been any spike in birth defects in people that got received injections while pregnant. However, my bias is not to get injections when pregnant.”  

Why not?

According to Delray Beach, FL facial plastic surgeon Miguel Mascaro, MD, while the answer is always “no,” there is no established data that would point to why. “Even though the neurotoxin only affects the muscle it’s injected into, there are no studies that have been performed to evaluate the safety of neurotoxin injection into pregnant women because the ethics of possibly exposing a fetus overrule any need for such a study,” he explains. “Therefore, it’s unknown and for safety reasons not recommended.”

New York dermatologist Doris Day, MD adds that studies done in animals show the drug does not cross the placenta, which in her opinion shows that its theoritically safe, but you won’t catch her performing injections on a pregnant patient. “Even though I believe it is most likely safe, pregnancy is a precious time and anything can go wrong,” she shares. “I would hate for something unrelated to happen but we still question if the treatment was a good idea or may have had something to do with the adverse outcome of the pregnancy.”

“I am not in favor of giving injections or any other drug that is not absolutely necessary to any mother who believes she is or is pregnant or a breast-feeding mother,” says Boca Raton, FL oculoplastic surgeon Steven Fagien, MD, who also cites the lack of evidence showing its dangerous to a fetus. “My philosophy, as in many things is that, ‘the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.'”  

If you’re trying to get pregnant, should you pause your injections?

Now, when to stop if you know a pregnancy is pending is a different thing. “I would stop a few months before,” advises Dr. Beer.

Dr. Day notes that her patients who are trying to conceive typically don’t press pause. “I do not have my patients stop these treatments if they are trying to get pregnant or going through fertility treatments,” she says. “I always defer to their OBGYN, but from my point of view there is no reason to stop treatments until they know they are pregnant.”

How soon after childbirth can you resume treatment?

“Once breastfeeding is done, it’s fair game,” says Dr. Mascaro.  

What is a safe anti-aging routine to use while deferring injections?

For those 40 weeks, the approach should be back to basics adds Dr. Mascaro: “Moisturizer, SPF and a healthy diet will do wonders during those times as hormones can do all kinds of things during pregnancy.” 

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