New member Tramadol question

Hello, I am new to this but excited to have joined!

I had a neck injury at age 18 and my body has never been the same.
I have bulging discs, stenosis, spondylitis and constant spasming in my neck and shoulder muscles causing frequent headaches and migraines.

After years of taking crazy amounts of Advil to no avail I finally found my wonderful pain management doctor and he has been prescribing Tramadol for about 4 years now.

My question is, has anybody had any negative or lasting effects from being on Tramadol long term?

Also, I'm newly married and would like to start a family in the next couple of years, does anyone have advice for Tramadol and pregnancy?
Thanks in advance!

Post Edited (ChristyJ88) : 8/4/2016 9:01:34 PM (GMT-6)

Hi Christy & welcome to Healing Well. One thing I can tell you if at any time you plan to stop the Tramadol you will need to wean off of it slowly. Like Creature, we didn't see many have much luck with that particular medication. You can address your concerns with your ob/gyn dr & this person should be able to give you some insight. Drugs.com is a site you visit & read up on Tramadol too.

Take care.

You'll need to check with your PM & OB about staying on the Tramadol while pregnant. If you are able to safely get off pain meds while pregnant, that is certainly the ideal. More recently, docs have found that in patients with severe pain, there are times when it can be healthier for the baby to be born with dependence on narcotics than to be carried to term by a mother who took no pain meds but had an elevated heart rate, blood pressure, etc. There is not one right answer as many factors go into the decision to withhold or continue pain meds during pregnancy.

I'm not sure if by "long-term" you mean "permanent" or just side effects that don't go away even if you continue on the medication for years. It is rare to have effects that don't go away once you finish withdrawing from the medication (withdrawal is generally quite unpleasant with tramadol). There can be side effects that you continue to experience even after being on the medication for years. In fact, in some cases, patients have been known to develop a new side effect even though they're on a stable dose for months or years. It's not common, but it's happened. Generally, though, a moderate amount of tramadol (to reduce but not eliminate pain) is safer than a large amount of ibuprofen if you are taking it long-term. I know I used to take up to 12 Advil a day to manage my pain because I was so terrified of narcotics. Caused me all sorts of stomach issues that continue to plague me to this day even though I very rarely take even a single Advil now. I definitely learned the hard way that OTC doesn't mean that you can safely take unlimited amounts & prescription doesn't mean that it's pure evil.

Hope you can get everything sorted out with your doctors. How exciting that you are beginning the journey of planning a family!

I was on tramadol for 9 months before advancing to a narcotic medication for bone pain related to avascular necrosis.

I found no significant side-effects while on tramadol. It is considered a synthetic opiate.

As far as pregnancy and Tramadol, I cannot answer directly so agree that it is best to discuss with your own physicians who know you as a complete person.

As someone with wide endocrine problems, I can speak for one effect of of unrelenting pain which is elevated cortisol levels. Cortisol is the primary stress hormone, produced by the adrenal glands and regulated in a feedback loop with the pituitary gland. I cannot think that elevated cortisol levels would be beneficial for a developing fetus - high levels of cortisol in the developing fetus could affect the developing HPA axis (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis) and heightened sensory processing.

If your pain is severe/moderate, it may be that staying on Tramadol at the lowest level feasible to contain your pain to a reasonable/bearable level would be more the wiser option than no tramadol with heightened pain and unrestrained circulating cortisol levels and heightened maternal stress.
- Karen -