Can women take folic acid?

Female friends are not unfamiliar with folic acid. If female friends go for a pre-pregnancy check-up, the doctor will recommend taking folic acid, mainly because folic acid can also prevent fetal neurological diseases. If a woman is not planning to have a baby, can she take folic acid on a regular basis? To answer this question, you must first understand what role folic acid plays for women, so that you can know what kind of women are suitable for taking folic acid. Let’s take a look at the following content to understand~

The main function of folic acid is to prevent the baby from suffering from neural tube disease. Therefore, women who are preparing for pregnancy and women in the first three months of pregnancy are recommended to take folic acid. So, can normal people take folic acid tablets? In fact, normal people can take them. Folic acid is not only used for pregnant women, but also an important coenzyme for the synthesis of red blood cells. It is used to prevent and treat megaloblastic anemia. However, the dosage should be small to prevent anemia.

Some women worry that taking folic acid tablets will affect their menstrual cycle. In fact, 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.

If your period is delayed, you should first check with a test strip to see if you are pregnant. After ruling out the possibility of pregnancy, you should consider irregular menstruation. There are many reasons for irregular menstruation, such as hormone level disorders, nutritional factors, mood swings, environmental factors, medication, etc.

If your menstruation is delayed for a long time, you should go to the obstetrics and gynecology department of a regular hospital for relevant examinations and treatment, do six hormone tests, and consider choosing menstruation regulating treatments such as progesterone. In addition, when menstruation is irregular, the ovulation period cannot be calculated and ovulation test strips must be used for monitoring.

1. Prevent anemia in pregnant women. The body of pregnant women needs folic acid to produce normal red blood cells. The survey shows that the prevalence of anemia 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 take 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 deformities of newborns by 15% and 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.

So, when is the best time to take folic acid tablets? 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.