Can You Use Red Light Therapy While Pregnant?

I invested in a red light therapy mask before getting pregnant with my fourth child with the goal of combating acne and giving my skin a much-needed glow. But I wasn’t sure what to do when I found out I was expecting—was it okay to do red light therapy while pregnant?

I ended up putting my mask in a drawer and forgetting about it for a while, just to play it safe. But doctors say that the answer behind whether red light therapy during pregnancy is safe is a little complicated. So, can you use red light therapy while pregnant? Here’s everything you need to consider.

Key Takeaways

• Red light therapy is a generally safe, non-invasive treatment that can boost collagen production, improve circulation and help reduce inflammation.
• There’s not enough research on whether red light therapy during pregnancy is safe. While it’s safe in theory, doctors don’t recommend it until there are further studies.
• One potential risk of red light therapy while pregnant is that it could create an inflammatory response in your skin at a time when it’s already sensitive due to hormonal changes, according to some experts.

What Is Red Light Therapy?

Red light therapy is a non-invasive treatment that uses red or near-infrared light, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). It’s commonly used to treat acne and combat signs of aging, including wrinkles and hair loss.

Red light therapy can also be used to help reduce pain and inflammation from exercise or injury, explains Jennifer Wider, MD, an ob-gyn and women’s health expert in New York City. “The idea behind it is that it can increase the production of the body’s cells’ energy source—the mitochondria, aka the powerhouse of the cell,” she says. “As a result, cell function and damaged cell repair can improve.”

You can receive red light therapy treatments at a healthcare provider’s office or use personal devices to treat yourself at home. Those can include panels that beam light onto yourself, as well as face masks or wraps you can put around different areas of your body. However, a healthcare provider will usually use a stronger red light than what you’d get in a home device, notes Ife J. Rodney, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and the founding director of Eternal Dermatology + Aesthetics in Fulton, Maryland.

Is Red Light Therapy Safe During Pregnancy?

We wish there was a clear answer on using red light therapy while pregnant—but like with many things during pregnancy, it’s a gray area. In general, experts say that it’s too early to tell whether it’s safe to use red light therapy during pregnancy. “There are very limited studies on this,” says Christine Greves, MD, an ob-gyn at the Orlando Health Women’s Institute.

Wider agrees. “There isn’t enough evidence at this point to say whether red light therapy is completely safe during pregnancy,” she says. “Existing studies have revealed that there’s probably little risk, but more scientifically controlled studies are necessary to confirm safety during pregnancy.”

In theory, red light therapy should be safe to use during pregnancy because of the way it works, says David Downing, MD, an ob-gyn at Weill Cornell Medicine. But doctors tend to be hesitant to flat-out recommend doing something like red light therapy during pregnancy when there’s no data that definitively says it’s safe.

Possible Benefits of Red Light Therapy During Pregnancy

Again, doctors generally don’t recommend doing red light therapy while pregnant due to the lack of safety data.

However, red light therapy has some benefits that could, in theory, be helpful during pregnancy. From a cosmetic standpoint, red light therapy could potentially help promote tighter, more youthful-looking skin, Rodney says, since it stimulates circulation and collagen formation. It may help with pregnancy acne too, Wider adds.

Red light therapy could even improve pregnancy aches and pains. “Red light therapy during pregnancy has been thought to reduce pain and inflammation, from back pain to sciatica, improve skin tone [and] help sleep,” Wider says. She points to a study that found red light therapy could boost placental health and function under specific circumstances.

Possible Risks of Red Light Therapy During Pregnancy

The biggest concern with red light therapy during pregnancy is that doctors don’t fully know how it would impact you and baby. But Downing says there are some other potential downsides to consider too.

Red light therapy is designed to create a mild inflammatory response in your skin to increase collagen formation, Downing explains. “The challenge is that the skin takes a hormonal beating during pregnancy,” he says. “Having something that can potentially trigger more of an inflammatory response when the skin is already stressed out might make inflammation a little more pronounced.”

There’s also a potential risk that high-intensity beams could impact the developing fetus if they’re aimed at your abdomen, Wider says.

Of course, red light therapy comes with potential risks both inside and outside of pregnancy. “Red light therapy could cause burns, skin irritation and possibly an allergic reaction,” Wider says. “Also, it can cause eye damage; eyes should be covered.”

To Sum It Up

Unfortunately, there isn’t robust research around using red light therapy during pregnancy. That’s why doctors suggest taking a pass while you’re expecting, just to be safe. “Anything cosmetic that’s not medically necessary, I usually recommend holding off on until baby’s born,” Rodney says.

Please note: The Bump and the materials and information it contains are not intended to, and do not constitute, medical or other health advice or diagnosis and should not be used as such. You should always consult with a qualified physician or health professional about your specific circumstances.