Is carbidopa-levodopa safe for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding?

No: Sinemet (carbidopa and levodopa) (carbidopa/levidopa) causes an increased incidence of birth defects in rabbits and rats, but we don't have enough human data to know its safety in pregnancy. Its very rare for a woman to get Parkinson's disease during the childbearing years, so there is little data to go by. If one needs the drug to function, then the choice seems pretty clear. Talk to an mfm about it.

Discuss with your MD: Pregnancy cat. C. No teratogenic effects were observed in a study in mice receiving up to 20x the maximum recommended human dose but there are no adequate studies in pregnant women. In individual cases Levodopa crossed the human placental barrier, enters the fetus, and is metabolized. In a study of one nursing mother with pd, excretion of Levodopa in human breast milk was reported. Discuss with md.