Can I take mometasone for skin while pregnant or breastfeeding?
A plain-words look at what the NHS, the US drug label and LactMed say about mometasone for skin.
In short
Pregnancy: You can use mometasone skin treatments in pregnancy.
Breastfeeding: You can use mometasone skin treatments during breastfeeding, but try to put it on the smallest areas you can and try not to use it for long periods.
Your doctor, midwife or pharmacist can help you decide.
What this means for you
Pregnancy
- Only a very small amount of the medicine reaches your blood and almost none reaches your baby.
- Even if a little does reach your baby, it will not harm them.
Breastfeeding
- The amount of mometasone that reaches breast milk is not known, but it's probably tiny, and your baby will not absorb much of it.
- Side effects in your baby are unlikely.
- Make sure your baby does not touch any part of your body where you've put mometasone, and wash your hands before you touch your baby.
- If your breasts need treating, a less strong medicine might be a better choice.
- But if you are using mometasone on your breasts, wash any cream or ointment off them, and then wash your hands, before you feed your baby.
- While breastfeeding, cream is usually a better choice than ointment because it washes off more easily.
- As soon as you can, get in touch with your health visitor, midwife, pharmacist or doctor if your baby is feeding less well than normal, or if anything else about your baby worries you.
Talk to your doctor or pharmacist
This page is educational, not advice for your own situation. Talk to your doctor, midwife or pharmacist before you start, stop or change any medicine in pregnancy or while breastfeeding.
The details: what each source says
Mometasone for skin in pregnancy
The NHS says
You can use mometasone skin treatments in pregnancy.
Only a very small amount of the medicine reaches your blood and almost none reaches your baby. Even if a little does reach your baby, it will not harm them.
In our words, from the NHS page Mometasone for skin (nhs.uk). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL v3.0). The NHS does not endorse this site.
The US drug label says
If pregnant or breast-feeding, ask a health professional before use.
Drug Facts label: Allergy (nasal), Amazon.com Services LLC. Label on DailyMed. Quoted verbatim; US labels are written for US prescribers and patients.
This quote is from the nasal formulation label.
8.1 Pregnancy Teratogenic Effects: There are no adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women. Therefore, mometasone furoate cream should be used during pregnancy only if the potential benefit justifies the potential risk to the fetus. Corticosteroids have been shown to be teratogenic in laboratory animals when administered systemically at relatively low dosage levels. Some corticosteroids have been shown to be teratogenic after dermal application in laboratory animals. When administered to pregnant rats, rabbits, and mice, mometasone furoate increased fetal malformations. The doses that produced malformations also decreased fetal growth, as measured by lower fetal weights and/or delayed ossification. Mometasone furoate also caused dystocia and related complications when administered to rats during the end of pregnancy. In mice, mometasone furoate caused cleft palate at subcutaneous doses of 60 mcg/kg and above. Fetal survival was reduced at 180 mcg/kg. No toxicity was observed at 20 mcg/kg.
Prescribing label, section “8.1 Pregnancy” (opening excerpt): Mometasone Furoate (topical), Preferred Pharmaceuticals Inc. Read the full section on DailyMed. Quoted verbatim; US labels are written for US prescribers and patients.
This quote is from the topical formulation label.
Mometasone for skin while breastfeeding
The NHS says
You can use mometasone skin treatments during breastfeeding, but try to put it on the smallest areas you can and try not to use it for long periods.
The amount of mometasone that reaches breast milk is not known, but it's probably tiny, and your baby will not absorb much of it. Side effects in your baby are unlikely.
Make sure your baby does not touch any part of your body where you've put mometasone, and wash your hands before you touch your baby.
If your breasts need treating, a less strong medicine might be a better choice. But if you are using mometasone on your breasts, wash any cream or ointment off them, and then wash your hands, before you feed your baby.
While breastfeeding, cream is usually a better choice than ointment because it washes off more easily.
As soon as you can, get in touch with your health visitor, midwife, pharmacist or doctor if your baby is feeding less well than normal, or if anything else about your baby worries you.
In our words, from the NHS page Mometasone for skin (nhs.uk). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL v3.0). The NHS does not endorse this site.
LactMed says
Topical mometasone has been studied during breastfeeding. Since only extensive application of the most potent corticosteroids may cause systemic effects in the mother, it is unlikely that short-term application of topical corticosteroids or the slow-release implant would pose a risk to the breastfed infant by passage into breastmilk. However, it would be prudent to use the least potent drug on the smallest area of skin possible. It is particularly important to ensure that the infant's skin does not come into direct contact with the areas of skin that have been treated. Current guidelines allow topical corticosteroids to be applied to the nipples just after nursing for eczema, with the nipples cleaned gently before nursing.[1,2] Only water-miscible cream or gel products should be applied to the breast because ointments may expose the infant to high levels of mineral paraffins via licking.[3]
“Summary of Use during Lactation”, LactMed record “Mometasone, Topical” (LM189), quoted verbatim. Everything LactMed reports about Mometasone, Topical while breastfeeding.
The US prescribing label says
Nursing Mothers Systemically administered corticosteroids appear in human milk and could suppress growth, interfere with endogenous corticosteroid production, or cause other untoward effects. It is not known whether topical administration of corticosteroids could result in sufficient systemic absorption to produce detectable quantities in human milk. Because many drugs are excreted in human milk, caution should be exercised when mometasone furoate cream is administered to a nursing woman.
Prescribing label, section “Nursing Mothers”: Mometasone Furoate (topical), Preferred Pharmaceuticals Inc. Label on DailyMed. Quoted verbatim; US labels are written for US prescribers and patients.
This quote is from the topical formulation label.
Other names
UK brand names (per the NHS): Elecon.
US name: mometasone.
The NHS has separate pages for other forms: mometasone nasal spray.
Sources
- NHS, Mometasone for skin (nhs.uk), page last reviewed 24 January 2024. Paraphrased. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- US drug label: Allergy (nasal), Amazon.com Services LLC, human otc drug, label effective 27 August 2026, set ID b4d548fa-374d-407f-8a41-f04bf6a0e7a4. DailyMed (National Library of Medicine). Public domain; quoted verbatim.
- US drug label: Mometasone Furoate (topical), Preferred Pharmaceuticals Inc., human prescription drug, label effective 17 July 2026, set ID 831f7694-8153-4a79-a453-48020b26f035. DailyMed (National Library of Medicine). Public domain; quoted verbatim.
- Drugs and Lactation Database (LactMed), National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), via NCBI Bookshelf, record “Mometasone, Topical” (LM189), bulk release of 22 September 2026. LactMed on NCBI Bookshelf. Public domain; quoted verbatim. LactMed is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Sources checked 26 September 2026. How we source and check every page.
Educational summary of named sources, not medical advice.