Caution: It has been amazing to me the speed with which the marijuana legalization movement has changed popular thought. Especially in our younger patients, there is a sense that somehow marijuana is good for everything. We see patients regularly who have “read studies” that marijuana works for just about anything. We jokingly say, soon there will be a study that shows it is good for pregnancy! It is unique that a drug is studied for benefit across the spectrum of medical diseases. For pregnancy and nursing, drugs are studied for their negative effects, but if pregnancy follows suit, marijuana will be studied for it’s benefit?? Through my career, I have spent countless hours counseling women on whether this drug or that environmental substance is harmful to pregnancy. I think our population needs to take a reality check on marijuana. It will not and can not be a drug that helps for all conditions. There are some serious complications with its use [including infertility] and it will never be safe for fetuses or newborns in any form.
Michael D. Fox, MD
Jacksonville Center
Reproductive Medicine
jcrm.org
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/health/marijuana-breast-milk-mothers.html