Tuesday, March 13, 2007
I was started on Plaquenil the end of January and was told it was an antibiotic that is used to treat malaria. That being the case, does anyone know if it will have an effect on my birth control pills since sometimes antibiotics effect how they work. My husband and I are not looking to get pregnant at this stage in the game.
Hi,
Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) isn't an antibiotic, it's an antimalarial drug. It's been around for decades to treat malaria and for rheumatic diseases such as RA.
I took it for quite a while up until last year and neither my gynecologist or my rheumatologist ever said anything about interactions with birth control. I don't see any notes about that type of interaction in information about side effects and interactions on the web. So I think it should be ok.
Christine