Are there any side effects of taking folic acid for a long time?

Folic acid is very important for pregnant women because it can effectively help the healthy development of the fetus in the womb. Generally, more folic acid needs to be supplemented in the body in the early stages of pregnancy. It should be noted that excessive folic acid supplementation will also produce side effects. Therefore, women need to have a certain understanding of relevant knowledge and cannot blindly supplement some nutrients, but should supplement according to their actual situation.

1. What are the side effects of folic acid tablets?

From 3 months before preparing for pregnancy to the first 3 months after pregnancy. Take 1 folic acid tablet containing 400 micrograms of folic acid every day. The emphasis is on starting to take the medicine before pregnancy in order to maintain a certain level of folic acid in women's bodies and ensure that the embryo has a better folic acid nutritional status in the early stages. According to research, it takes 4 weeks for women to recover from folic acid deficiency after taking folic acid. Guidance: Generally speaking, folic acid can be stopped after three months of pregnancy. It is not necessary to take folic acid throughout the entire pregnancy. When to start and stop taking folic acid is related to the development of the fetus at different stages of pregnancy. The main purpose of taking folic acid is to prevent congenital neural tube defects in the fetus.

Women of childbearing age should take 0.4 mg of folic acid daily starting three months before pregnancy and continue throughout the pregnancy. If you are not sure about your situation, be sure to consult your doctor. It is best to take folic acid half an hour to an hour before breakfast, and it is better absorbed on an empty stomach.

1. Prevent anemia in pregnant women. The body of pregnant women needs folic acid to produce normal red blood cells. Surveys show that the anemia prevalence rate among Chinese women of childbearing age is 20.6%. Insufficient folic acid intake may also cause anemia in pregnant women.

2. Reduce the risk of birth defects. After 13 years of research on the "China-US Cooperation Project on Preventing Neural Tube Defects", 250,000 cases of evidence-based medicine have confirmed that women of childbearing age who insist on taking 0.4 mg of folic acid every day from the beginning of pregnancy preparation can reduce the incidence of fetal neural tube defects by 85%, the incidence of fetal cleft lip and palate by 50%, and the incidence of congenital heart disease by 35%. They can also reduce major external malformations of newborns by 15% and reduce the neonatal mortality rate by 20%.

3. In the middle and late stages of pregnancy, in addition to the growth and development of the fetus, the development of the mother's blood volume, breasts, and placenta greatly increases the demand for folic acid. If folic acid is insufficient, pregnant women are prone to placental abruption, pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome, and megaloblastic anemia; the fetus is prone to intrauterine growth retardation, premature birth, and low birth weight, and the growth and intellectual development of the fetus after birth will be affected.

2. Will taking folic acid affect menstruation?

Folic acid tablets have little effect on the menstrual cycle. If menstruation is delayed after taking folic acid tablets, you should consider whether you are pregnant. After excluding the possibility of pregnancy, you should consider symptoms such as irregular menstruation. Mental factors, environmental changes, medications, and nutritional status can all cause menstrual abnormalities.

Folic acid tablets will not affect menstruation. Women's menstruation is regulated by the hypothalamus-pituitary-ovarian gonadal axis. Mental factors, mood swings, environmental changes, pregnancy, age, illness, medication, and nutritional status can all cause dysfunction of the gonad axis and lead to menstrual abnormalities.