Feeling tired, have a dry mouth and constantly constipated? It could be your medication.
Allergies, motion sickness, insomnia…antihistamines can be very useful at helping treat a whole host of ailments. But while they could be helping to alleviate one symptom in your body, they can often be getting in the way of something else. And it could be your sex drive.
According to the experts, antihistamines come in two categories: first generation and second generation.
Those in the first generation, which includes brompheniramine, chlorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton), diphenhydramine (Benadryl), doxylamine (Unisom) and carbinoxamine (Karbinal ER) can be problematic. The main deal with these drugs, when it comes to your sex drive, is that they can cause significant drowsiness.
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They can also dry you out, and make your body produce less natural lubricant in your mouth, eyes and other areas. Which can be a less than helpful when it comes to having comfortable and pleasurable sex.
(The fact that the drugs in this category can also cause blurred vision, constipation and agitation doesn’t help matters, of course).
What’s a good course to follow?
If you need to take antihistamines for one reason or another, be it to treat your allergies or to help you sleep, talk to your doctor about those in the second generation. Drugs that fall under this category include fexofenadine (Allegra), loratadine (Claritin), loratadine ODT (Alavert, Tavist ND), desloratadine (Clarinex) and certirizine (Zyrtec).
They still may leave you feeling ‘dried out’ but they are the least sedating of the bunch and are said to produce fewer side effects, compared with those of the first generation.
And you want to be your best you, especially when it comes to romance, right?
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