- According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms that accompany a shingles infection while pregnant include a red rash over part of your body, intense pain, itchiness and blisters that can break open and ooze.
- If you have shingles while pregnant, avoid contact with other pregnant women during the time that you have unhealed lesions, since you could pass the infection on to them as chickenpox, increasing their chances of giving birth to babies with birth defects.
- Although shingles and chickenpox are caused by the same virus (varicella-zoster virus), Dr. Ben Peyton-Jones, a specialist in obstetrics with BabyCenter.Com, states that research does not indicate problems arising in a pregnancy as a result of a shingles infection.
- Having shingles while pregnant may increase your chances of developing certain complications, including secondary infections of the eye or skin, depending upon what location of your body was infected.
- Treatment for shingles typically involves an anti-viral medicine and pain relief. Make sure your doctor knows you're pregnant so he can discuss different treatments approved for use with pregnant women.
