Kenyan pharmacists have warned women against inserting allergy tablets into their vaginas in an attempt to make them tighter, following the spread of potentially dangerous medical advice on social media.<\/p>\n
The warning follows a wave of social media posts promoting cetirizine – a widely available oral antihistamine used to treat allergies – as a way of tightening the vagina, supposedly to enhance sexual pleasure.<\/p>\n
Although antihistamines can sometimes cause dryness as a side effect, experts say this does not strengthen vaginal muscles.<\/p>\n
“Dryness is not tightness… instead, it may increase friction, discomfort, and the risk of tissue injury,” the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (PSK) said.<\/p>\n
“Inserting oral tablets is unsafe. Cetirizine tablets are made to be swallowed. Their ingredients have not been tested on delicate vaginal tissue,” it added.<\/p>\n
Cetirizine is commonly used to relieve symptoms such as sneezing, a runny nose, itchy eyes and skin reactions, including hives.<\/p>\n
The controversy began earlier this week when posts circulated on TikTok claiming that cetirizine could reduce vaginal moisture and create a sensation of tightness during sex.<\/p>\n
This sparked widespread debate, with some users promoting the practice while others questioned its safety.<\/p>\n
There have also been local media reports of the price of the drug rising and increased demand in some pharmacies, especially in the capital, Nairobi. <\/p>\n
“Cetirizine is an allergy medicine, taken by mouth. It is not approved or tested for any other purpose, and definitely not for vaginal use,” the PSK, a professional body representing pharmacists in Kenya, said in a statement issued on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“If you have already tried it. Stop. See a doctor if you have pain, bleeding, burning, itching, unusual discharge, or fever,” it advised.<\/p>\n
The society also urged social media influencers and content creators to take care when sharing health information, saying that unverified claims could put people’s health at risk.<\/p>\n
The warning comes a day after Kenya’s health ministry expressed concern about the trend.<\/p>\n
Ouma Oluga, a senior health official, said some social media users appeared to be treating the medical advice from experts as a joke, without considering the possible consequences.<\/p>\n
He suggested that the authorities could introduce a system to track the distribution and purchase of medicines to help identify possible misuse.<\/p>\n
However, no formal decision has been announced on such a initiative.<\/p>\n
The PSK said it was aware of reports of increased demand for cetirizine, rising prices and shortages at some pharmacies.<\/p>\n
It urged retailers not to exploit the trend, warning that people who genuinely needed the medicine for allergies could struggle to obtain it.<\/p>\n
It went on to encourage its members not to knowingly dispense medicines that would be misused – and report any side affects to the health authorities of those that had been.<\/p>\n
The PSK ended its statement by saying that unverified online trends should never trump what the experts say: “Check with a pharmacist before using any medicine for a purpose it was not made for. <\/p>\n
“Do not rely on social media for medical advice.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenyan pharmacists have warned women against inserting allergy tablets into their vaginas in an attempt to make them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[103,61,60,371],"class_list":["post-675776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}