Monday, April 14, 2008
Is Claritin dangerous if I am pregnant? I heard something about Claritin and hypospadias recently in the news.
The Food and Drug Administration considers Claritin (loratadine) relatively safe and gives it a Class B rating for pregnancy. Of course, no woman wants to take medicine while she is pregnant, but Class B medicines are the safest category of medicine. (Hardly any medications are Class A, because the studies required for that rating wouldn’t be ethical to conduct on pregnant women.)
Hypospadias is a birth defect in newborn boys in which the urethra opening is on the bottom side of the penis, rather than the end. It’s usually correctable with surgery. It occurs in 1 out of every 200 newborn males, and studies have shown no increase in babies whose mothers were taking Claritin in the first trimester of pregnancy. The concern dates to 2002, when a Swedish study found a possible link between the allergy medication and this birth defect; however, further studies found no connection.
Learn more in the Everyday Health Allergy Center.