Topical meds are, in general, minimally absorbed by the body. The package inserts tend to be generalized, and assume that a steroid cream or lotion or eye drop is exactly the same as taking high doses orally.

Know that pregnant women with asthma commonly use steroid-based inhalers … the need to breathe far outweighs any small risk from the steroids and, so far as I know, there is no evidence of harm to the baby from use of inhalers.

All of which means, I would be quite comfortable using a topical steroid locally/topically for a short period of time.

EDIT: Again, the warning is generic. It's the same on a tube of .05% OTC corticosteroid lotion as it is on a bottle of 50 mg. prednisone tablets. They are covering their asses. This doesnt' mean the risk is significant, or even exists.

It's YOUR choice, but since you asked for advice, I would say that you are safe.

EDIT#2: Your concerns are reasonable, and I understand what you are saying. Yes, it would be better if the manufacturers were more clear … but they're not. I did a pubmed search — I used 'steroids pregnancy asthma' as my search terms since I knew I was more likely to find good data than if I searched 'steroids pregnancy hemerrhoids…' and found some good studies.

(Small study, but no evidence of fetal malformation.)

(Long term use of inhaled steroids in asthmatic women resulted in aslight increase in the percentage of low birthweight babies, but no increase in malformation mentioned.)

(No evidence of fetal harm in a large study of women on a particular inhaled steroid — which is, incidently, given a catagory B rating — same as tylenol.)

(A search under hemhorroids turns up nothing useful; only a study on the effectiveness of a particular medication — it works, but no mention of effects on the pregnancy or fetus.)

FWIW, steroids in general are in catagory C — no evidence of harm to the baby when used as directed, but no good research available either. (Animal research generally doses the critters with HUGE amounts of the drug.)

Ah — just found this — it addresses topical steroids in general, and finds no increase in malformations, but possible risk of low birthweight after long-term use of 'very potent' ones.

FWIW, the comment about use during breastfeeding further demonstrates their ass covering mentality — steroids are L2 for breastfeeding — about as safe as anything gets. (Comparable to catagory B for pregnancy.)