Pregnancy category
Pregnancy category
Pregnancy category is a system of classification used by pharmaceutical companies, physicians, and medical professionals to assess the potential risk a medication or substance may pose to a pregnant woman and her developing fetus.
Pronunciation
Pregnancy category: /ˈprɛɡnənsi ˈkætɪɡ(ə)ri/
Etymology
The term "pregnancy category" is derived from the English words "pregnancy", which refers to the period during which a woman carries a fetus inside her, and "category", which refers to a class or division of people or things having particular shared characteristics.
Classification
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States previously used a letter system (A, B, C, D, X, and N) to classify the risks to a fetus when a specific medicine is taken during pregnancy. This system has been replaced by a more comprehensive guide known as the Pregnancy and Lactation Labeling Rule (PLLR) which provides more detailed information about the potential risks and benefits.
Related Terms
- Teratogen: Any agent that can disturb the development of an embryo or fetus.
- Fetus: An unborn offspring, from the embryo stage (the end of the eighth week after conception, when the major structures have formed) until birth.
- Embryo: An unborn or unhatched offspring in the process of development, in particular, a human offspring during the period from approximately the second to the eighth week after fertilization.
- Pharmaceutical drug: A drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease.
- Food and Drug Administration (FDA): A federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments.
External links
- Medical encyclopedia article on Pregnancy category
- Wikipedia's article - Pregnancy category
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