PREGNANT women desperate to control their morning sickness symptoms are paying up to $7000 for a drug not yet approved for their use.

Obstetricians are prescribing the anti-nausea drug Zofran – only subsidised for use in controlling nausea in chemotherapy patients – to women with a severe form of morning sickness called hyperemesis gravidarum.

Up to 3 per cent of pregnant women – or 9000 in Australia each year- suffer the condition, and they are usually admitted to hospital several times during their pregnancies.

But because the drug’s manufacturer has not sought approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration to have it subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for pregnancy sickness, it costs $8 a pill.

Obstetrician Jim Ferry said Zofran was often the only drug that provided relief for those with hyperemesis gravidarum and should be subsidised.

"these women are seriously ill, they are vomiting almost constantly, they are bedridden and unable to function," he said.

"I have had women terminate wanted pregnancies because they just cannot cope with the effects of hyperemesis."

A federal health department spokeswoman said the drug had not been publicly funded for pregnant women because the TGA had not listed treatment of the condition as one of the drug’s intended uses.

A spokeswoman for drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline said there was not enough clinical evidence to prove Zofran was safe for use by pregnant women, although there appeared to be no adverse outcomes, she said.

But Box Hill woman Kendall Cordes, 38, who is seven months pregnant with her third child, said it was unfair Zofran was not subsidised: it was the only thing that stopped her from having to stay in hospital.

She said she had to take the more expensive Zofran wafers at a cost of $22 each, or more than $200 a week.

"It would cost the health system a lot less to fund the drug than it would to make a hospital bed available to them … throughout their pregnancy," Ms Cordes said.