Safety When Taking a Potential or Reproductive Hazard Medicine
Care instructions
Potential or reproductive hazard medicines
If you have been prescribed a potential hazard medicine or a reproductive hazard medicine to treat your health needs, you and the people around you need to follow some safety measures. Read the following information to learn more. Talk to your healthcare provider if you have questions.
- Although the potential hazard medicine will help you, contact with the potential hazard medicine or contact with your body fluids or waste may harm other people or pets.
- Although the reproductive hazard medicine will help you, contact with the reproductive hazard medicine or contact with your body fluids or waste can cause harm to other people but only if they are in childbearing years (women and men), pregnant, or breastfeeding.
In this handout, the term caregivers includes people like family or friends who may help with your care. Formal caregivers from an agency who are paid to be your caregiver should follow the rules their agency provides to protect themselves while providing care.
General safety
For their safety, tell every healthcare provider who has contact with you that you’re taking a potential or reproductive hazard medicine. Keep an updated list of the medicines you're taking.
Keep your medicine in a safe place away from:
- children and pets
- food and drink
- places where you eat (if possible)
Check the label on the medicine container and talk to your pharmacist to learn more about storing your medicine safely.
You may get some safety supplies from the pharmacy or clinic where you get your medicine. If you need supplies to help you safely manage your medicine, ask your pharmacy or clinic where you get your medicine, or buy them from a medical supply company. Examples of supplies may include a sharps container or disposable gloves.
Having sex, getting pregnant, or breastfeeding
It's safe and important to be with your loved ones. If you are taking a potential or reproductive hazard medicine, you can eat together, enjoy activities together, touch, hug, and kiss.
Some potential and reproductive hazard medicines may affect unborn babies as they are developing. If it’s possible for you to get pregnant or get someone else pregnant, talk to your healthcare provider about having sex, getting pregnant, and using birth control.
Talk to your healthcare provider before you breastfeed to know if the potential or reproductive hazard medicine can come through your breastmilk.
If a caregiver is trying to get pregnant, is pregnant, or is breastfeeding, they should:
- talk to their own healthcare provider about the care they are providing
- follow the safety steps below when they are providing care
Taking the medicine
Always wash your hands with soap and water before and after taking a potential or reproductive hazard medicine.
Caregivers should not touch the potential or reproductive hazard medicine with their bare hands. They should:
- wear disposable gloves
- wash their hands with soap and water before putting on the disposable gloves
- remove and throw out the disposable gloves before touching other surfaces
- wash their hands with soap and water after throwing out the disposable gloves
If your medicine is damaged—for example, a broken pill (or powder found in the medicine container), the liquid is leaking, or the fluid for injection is cloudy:
- talk to your pharmacist about what to do before taking the medicine
- contact your healthcare provider if you need a refill of your potential or reproductive hazard medicine
Talk to your healthcare provider about how you should take your medicine safely or how your caregivers should help you to take your medicine safely, whether it is a pill, liquid, injection, or cream.
Throwing out medicine and used supplies
If you have extra medicine, take it to a pharmacy so they can throw it out safely.
- Don’t put any medicine in the garbage or into a sharps container.
- Don’t flush any medicine down a toilet.
- Don’t put any sharps (like glass vials, syringes, and needles) in the same container as unused, partly used, or expired medicine.
Talk to your pharmacist or healthcare provider about throwing out medicine and used supplies safely. Learn more about safely throwing out general waste, medicine waste, and sharps.
Body fluids and waste
Body fluids and waste include urine (pee), stool (poop), blood, vomit (throw-up), saliva (spit), vaginal fluid, semen, and sweat.
Always wash your hands with soap and water after going to the bathroom or handling your body fluids and waste. This includes when you handle diapers or incontinence products, menstrual products, or the contents from a bed pan, commode chair basin, urinary catheter, or ostomy bag.
Caregivers should not touch your body fluids and waste with their bare hands. If they need to help with your care, they should:
- wear disposable gloves
- wash their hands with soap and water before putting on the disposable gloves
- remove and throw out the disposable gloves before touching other surfaces
- wash their hands with soap and water after throwing out the disposable gloves
Talk to your healthcare provider about handling body fluids and waste safely.
Doing laundry
Clothes, towels, or bedding that have been in contact with the potential or reproductive hazard medicine or your body fluids or waste can be washed normally.
Contact with eyes or skin
If a potential or reproductive hazard medicine (in liquid form or from the powder of a cut tablet or broken capsule) comes in contact with a person's eyes or skin, take care of the person first, then clean up the spill, if you need to.
First aid: Contact with eyes
To flush eyes that had contact with the potential or reproductive hazard medicine:
- Wash hands with soap and water. Caregivers should also put on disposable gloves.
- If the person is wearing contact lenses, take them out and rinse them, or throw them away.
- Flush eyes with fresh, lukewarm running water for 15 minutes, while keeping eyes open. Do not rub eyes while flushing with water.
- Wash hands with soap and water. Caregivers should remove and throw out the disposable gloves before touching any other surfaces and then wash their hands with soap and water.
Call Health Link at 811 or get medical help if needed.
First aid: Contact with skin
To clean skin that had contact with the liquid potential or reproductive hazard medicine:
- Wash hands with soap and water. Caregivers should put on disposable gloves.
- Take off the clothing or remove bedding that had contact with the potential or reproductive hazard medicine.
- Use soap and water to wash the affected skin.
- Pat the skin dry.
- Wash hands with soap and water. Caregivers should remove and throw out the disposable gloves before touching any other surfaces and then wash their hands with soap and water.
If the skin gets irritated or a rash starts, call your clinic, family doctor, or Health Link at 811.
Cleaning up spills
A spill could be:
- a spilled liquid potential or reproductive hazard medicine
- the powder from a potential or reproductive hazard medicine tablet that has been cut or a capsule that has broken
Tablets or capsules that are dropped but are not cut or broken are not considered a spill.
Caregivers should wear disposable gloves to pick up the tablet or capsule. It should be put into a separate container and returned to the pharmacy to be thrown away safely.
Talk to your healthcare provider about cleaning up spills safely.
Learning more
To learn more about how to safety take potential or reproductive hazard medicines, go to: safety when you're taking a potential or reproductive hazard medicine.
To see this information online and learn more, visit MyHealth.Alberta.ca/health/aftercareinformation/pages/conditions.aspx?hwid=custom.ab_reproductivehazard_medicines_safety_inst.
For 24/7 nurse advice and general health information call Health Link at 811.
Current as of: February 19, 2025
Author: Provincial Hazardous Medication Committee, Alberta Health Services
This material is not a substitute for the advice of a qualified health professional. This material is intended for general information only and is provided on an "as is", "where is" basis. Although reasonable efforts were made to confirm the accuracy of the information, Alberta Health Services does not make any representation or warranty, express, implied or statutory, as to the accuracy, reliability, completeness, applicability or fitness for a particular purpose of such information. Alberta Health Services expressly disclaims all liability for the use of these materials, and for any claims, actions, demands or suits arising from such use.
