Mucinex can reportedly increase fertility in women.
Love is Blind star Alexa Lemieux recently shared a video recommending that those struggling with getting pregnant try using Mucinex to help things along. She noted that after undergoing two failed rounds of IUI, an intrauterine insemination procedure, she gave the common cold medication a try.
In her TikTok video, Lemieux said: “During my ovulation, I took Mucinex and a few weeks later found out that I was pregnant.” At the time, Lemieux admitted that she also was taking letrozole pills that were leftover from her IUI treatment, which like Mucinex, are prescribed for ovarian stimulation. She suggested that her followers try Mucinex for seven days in a row to see results.
Mucinex is a medicine that was created to treat cold and flu symptoms, with its alleged ability to facilitate pregnancy being a recent development. There are no warnings on Mucinex’s packaging warning that the drug can increase fertility.
“Reckitt is aware of discussions surrounding Mucinex and fertility,” Andrea Riepe – the global head of crisis management for Mucinex’s parent company, Reckitt – explained to Popsugar. “As a global leader in health and hygiene, we wish to clarify that Mucinex should only be used as intended and in line with usage instructions.”
Mucinex is one of many brand names for guaifenesin, which according to the Mayo Clinic, thins mucus or phlegm from the lungs when you have congestion from a cold or flu.
“Mucinex is an expectorant that works by thinning the mucus that lines your lungs and throat and, in theory, it should help thin the cervical mucus to allow improved sperm transport to the upper female reproductive tract,” fertility specialist Dr Marie Facadio Antero explained to Parents.com. “However, whether Mucinex contributes to thinning cervical mucus still needs to be shown.”
While some medical professionals have theorised that guaifenesin may be thinning the cervical mucus of patients, a reproductive endocrinologist with Columbia University Fertility Center, Dr Alex Robles, revealed to Popsugar that he prescribes it to address any mucus present in a patient’s uterine lining.
He said: “In the reproductive world, we occasionally use Mucinex to help clear out any mucus that might be present inside the uterine lining before an embryo transfer.”
Throughout the embryo transfer cycle, Dr Robles noted that patients are monitored to ensure that their uterine lining is growing the way it should. However, when doctors see that a patient has developed fluid or mucus in their lining, he noted that they either let it resolve in its own time or “occasionally try Mucinex to help clear it up”.
Despite this, he noted that there’s no data to back the method up, and added that it’s possible that the women who tried Mucinex and got pregnant possibly would have gotten pregnant with or without the medication.
Since there is a two-week wait period between ovulation and when a pregnancy test can accurately detect pregnancy hormone hCG, many medical professionals ultimately say it is impossible to know not only the date of conception but also if the Mucinex worked.
