A Petition has Been Created to put Ondansetron on the PBS for Women With Hyperemesis Gravidarum
If there was one season of my life I wouldn’t want to go through again, it would be the first 20 weeks of my third pregnancy.
I had a three year old daughter and not yet one year old, and I was experiencing the worst morning sickness I had ever experienced. My usual practices from my previous pregnancies of not having an empty tummy, wearing a travel sickness band and sucking ginger lollies did little to help my condition.
It was no fun, spewing up for the 3rd time before 9am with my 11-month-old standing between my legs and my three-year-old peering over the toilet to see me hurl up whatever was left in my stomach.
I constantly felt faint and I couldn’t keep down water and felt incapable of looking after my two young children, let alone myself and my unborn babe. It was a difficult time.
But my obstetrician was fantastic and prescribed me Zofran. He told me to take half of the wafer each time I felt the symptoms of nausea. I didn’t understand why he told me that information until I took my prescription to my pharmacy and nearly fell over backwards when I was charged $80 for a box containing a few tablets (from memory it was 8 or 10 tablets in the box).
I paid my money and did as my obstetrician said and halved each wafer tablet as needed.
I went through a few boxes until halfway through my pregnancy, I no longer needed to take those wafers.
What I experienced was Hyperemesis Gravidarum. While I didn’t need to go to hospital for fluids, taking those Zofran tablets helped me to keep fluids and basic foods down. It helped me get through my days and gave my two younger children their mother back.
Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) is a condition that is experienced during pregnancy where women experience severe nausea and vomiting. They can lose so much weight, they become dehydrated and need medical intervention to replace their lost fluids. They are in a constant state of nausea – even after they are sick.
Before medications were used to control HG symptoms, HG was the most common cause of death in pregnancy. HG is more than just ‘severe morning sickness’, generally the symptoms do get better by the 20th week of pregnancy, but many women don’t get relief until they have their baby.
A petition has been created to see Ondansetron (which is the active ingredient in Zofran wafers) placed on the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS) for women who suffer from Hyperemesis Gravidarum during pregnancy. Currently, the discount rate for the medication is only available to those that are going through chemotherapy.
The petition has been created by Samantha McCall, after experiencing 2 HG pregnancies which caused her to stop work. The cost of purchasing the medication hit the family budget hard. Samantha explains the reason for the petition on the change.org website.
During pregnancy women who suffer from Hyperemesis Gravidarum require medication that is very expensive. One of these medications Ondansetron is on the PBS but only for those who are going through Chemotherapy. I would like to see it added for women who suffer Hyperemesis Gravidarum during pregnancy too.
I experienced 2 HG pregnancies. Both of which I had to take Ondansetron throughout the entire 40 weeks. Ondansetron comes in packets of 10 for $30+. I was taking three tablets a day. For someone who was unable to work due to the HG even whilst medicated this was an exuberant amount of money that I just did not have. We relied on family to purchase medication for me many weeks. Medication without I would have been permanently hospitalised due to the inability to eat or drink. The dehydration and malnourishment very nearly killed me. No one should not be able to take medication that is required to keep them alive because of the price.
This petition will be delivered to:
Australian Government Department Of Health
So far the petition has 17,949 signatures. It needs another 7051 signatures to reach its 25,000 target.
If you agree with the petition, why not head to the page and add a signature here.
There are no known causes for HG, so no pregnant woman is immune to the condition, however, there are safe medications that can be taken to alleviate its symptoms. But the cost needs to be made affordable for pregnant women who rely on it so they can live a semi-normal life.
For more information about Hyperemesis Gravidarum, head here.
As always, any medication taken during pregnancy MUST be talked about with your doctor. What may work for one woman, may not work for another. Your obstetrician or midwife can give you the best recommendations for your personal situation.
As someone who has a family history of this, I would highly appreciate it being cheaper in case I get HG when I decide to have children.