Q: My wife is in the 11th week of pregnancy. Since she was not knowing, she took Duoluton tablets (one tablet each for 4 days) during 5th-6th week of pregnancy. Her last periods were 2.5 months back. The HCG test is positive and we also got scanning done. Is it safe to continue the pregnancy since she has taken the Duoluton tablets? I am getting different opinions from different doctors. The scan report is normal. However, we can not make out any effects at this stage. Kindly give me your valuable advice whether to continue or not.

A:I presume your wife had taken Duoluton-L (i.e. low dose) that contains levonorgestrel 0.25mg and ethinyl oestradiol 0.05mg. It has been suggested by some researchers that there is a very small theoretical risk of fetal malformations; while others do not support this theory. For obvious reasons clinical trials to prove or disprove the theory cannot be conducted due to ethical reasons. Whatever may be the case there is small - or rather very small - risk. However this is certainly not the reason to discontinue pregnancy. As a case of abundant precaution, one should do ultrasound tests more frequently than usually done.