This medicine your mom took while pregnant in the ’60s or ’70s may increase your risk of colorectal cancer

Queasy come, queasy go.

Nausea and vomiting are very common in pregnancy, especially during the first trimester, due to rapid hormone changes. Though it’s called “morning sickness,” it can occur at any time of day and at any point of pregnancy.

A new UCLA study suggests that these unpleasant symptoms are perfectly normal and, in fact, a healthy immune response that prevents the body from rejecting the fetus.

That wasn’t always the understanding. Morning sickness used to be thought of as a psychological or psychosomatic issue — or a sign of a bad pregnancy.

Bendectin — a prescription drug containing the antispasmodic dicyclomine, the antihistamine doxylamine and vitamin B6 in the form of pyridoxine — was commonly the first line of defense for morning sickness after it was approved in 1956.

As many as 25% of pregnant women were believed to take the medication through the mid-1970s.

Bendectin was reformulated in 1976 to remove dicyclomine after it was deemed to be ineffective for addressing nausea and vomiting in pregnancy.

And the drug was voluntarily discontinued in 1983 after it became mired in lawsuits alleging it caused birth defects.

Forty years later, a major study from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston linked prenatal exposure to Bendectin to a higher risk of colorectal cancer later in life.

Researchers hypothesized dicyclomine was the key factor — it was suspected to “directly target” the fetus’ developing gastrointestinal tract.

The UTHealth Houston study — published in 2023 in the journal JNCI Cancer Spectrum — tracked more than 14,500 California women who gave birth between 1959 and 1967.

The fetuses exposed to Bendectin were three times more likely to develop colorectal cancer as adults than those who weren’t.

The UTHealth researchers couldn’t specifically separate the effect of dicyclomine from the other components of the drug, saying more research was needed.

Dicyclomine is used to treat irritable bowel syndrome by relaxing the smooth muscles in the stomach and intestines to relieve cramps and spasms.

Pregnant women should only take dicyclomine to manage their gastrointestinal symptoms after consulting a healthcare provider.

It’s been found to trigger side effects such as dizziness, dry mouth, blurry vision, nausea and drowsiness and in severe cases, heart rate and blood pressure changes and heat intolerance.

Meanwhile, diclegis — which contains doxylamine and pyridoxine — was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2013 for morning sickness.

Always talk with a doctor before starting a new medication, especially when pregnant.

The use of medications during pregnancy is under new scrutiny after President Trump highlighted a potential link between acetaminophen (brand name: Tylenol) and an increased risk of autism.

Health experts say it’s still safe — and often necessary — to take acetaminophen during pregnancy to reduce fever and relieve pain.