In many cases when faced with allergies and hives women turn to Claritin that can be found without a prescription.
But is Claritin safe during pregnancy? When thinking about Claritin and pregnancy you should know that at the moment it looks like the drug is safe to be used during pregnancy, even though it is possible that the specialists don’t know all of its effects.
Category B
There is a category system used by the FDA that classifies the risks associated to a drug in case of pregnancy.
Category B is associated with the drugs that haven’t been studied enough yet in case of pregnant women but that apparently cause no harm to the fetus.
In the same time the same category is given to the medication that seemed to have harmed the fetus in case of animals but turned out to be safe in case of humans.
If you are taking Claritin during pregnancy you should know that it didn’t do any harm in case of the animals, not even in high doses.
The few studies that have been conducted in case of humans suggest that the medication cannot be associated with an increased risk of miscarriage or birth defects but still there is need for further research.
Although all this is true, the studies conducted cannot rule out the possibility for the drug to be harmful for humans.
This means that the drug should be used by women only in case her doctor believes that the benefits of the medication outweigh the risks that could be associated with it.
In case you are pregnant and you are thinking about taking Claritin you should make sure to tell your health care provider about it. He or she will be able to give you the best advice in your situation. As a result it is possible to take Claritin while being pregnant.
