Saw Palmetto in pregnancy and breastfeeding

What NCCIH says about safety

Saw palmetto is well tolerated. It has been used safely in research studies for up to 3 years. Adverse effects are mild and infrequent; they may include digestive symptoms, dizziness, and headache. Saw palmetto does not appear to affect readings of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, even when taken in higher-than-usual amounts. PSA is a protein produced by the prostate gland. PSA levels have been used to screen for prostate cancer and are also used to monitor patients who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer Saw palmetto may be unsafe for use during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.

Quoted in full from NCCIH so nothing is lost in summarising. Where they say “little is known”, that means the studies do not exist — not that the herb is known to be safe, and not that it is known to be harmful.

How much is actually known

Many studies have been conducted on the usefulness of saw palmetto for urinary tract symptoms associated with prostate enlargement in men. We know enough to conclude that saw palmetto is probably not helpful for this purpose. There is not enough evidence to determine whether saw palmetto is useful for other health purposes. More studies are needed before definitive conclusions can be made.

What the research has found

A 2023 review of 27 studies on saw palmetto in men with BPH found that this herb, when administered alone, provides little or no benefit for BPH symptoms. Definite conclusions could not be reached about the effects of combinations of herbs that include saw palmetto. Two clinical trials funded by the National Institutes of Health, both of which evaluated saw palmetto alone, were included in this review. One tested a standard dose of saw palmetto; the other tested increasing doses of saw palmetto, up to three times the usual dose. In both studies, saw palmetto did not improve BPH symptoms. Because it had been suggested that saw palmetto products prepared using hexane extraction might be more effective than those prepared in other ways, the reviewers analyzed studies of these products and studies of other products separately. No difference was found in the effects of the two kinds of products on BPH symptoms. A 2022 review of five studies on saw palmetto for chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome did not find a significant benefit of the herb in patients with this condition. A few small studies have tested saw palmetto, used orally or topically (applied to the scalp), for male-pattern hair loss. The evidence is too limited to allow conclusions to be reached.

Before you take this

Dose and form change the answer completely. A culinary amount of a spice, a cup of tea, and a concentrated supplement extract are three different things, and most research is done on the last of them.

Supplements are also not regulated like medicines, so strength and purity vary between products. Bring the actual bottle to your midwife, doctor or pharmacist — that conversation is worth more than any page, including this one.