Can I take levocetirizine while pregnant or breastfeeding?

If pregnant or breast-feeding: • if breast-feeding: not recommended • if pregnant: ask a health professional before use

Drug Facts label: ALLERGY RELIEF (oral), Amazon.com Services LLC. Label on DailyMed. Quoted verbatim; US labels are written for US prescribers and patients.

8.1 Pregnancy Pregnancy Category B There are no adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women. Because animal reproduction studies are not always predictive of human response, levocetirizine dihydrochloride should be used during pregnancy only if clearly needed. Teratogenic Effects In rats and rabbits, levocetirizine was not teratogenic at oral doses approximately 320 and 390, respectively, times the maximum recommended daily oral dose in adults on a mg/m 2 basis.

Prescribing label, section “8.1 Pregnancy”: Levocetirizine Dihydrochloride (oral), Proficient Rx LP. Label on DailyMed. Quoted verbatim; US labels are written for US prescribers and patients.

Levocetirizine is the R-enantiomer of cetirizine. Based on limited information from cetirizine and levocetirizine, levocetirizine appears to be acceptable during breastfeeding.[1,2] Larger doses or more prolonged use may cause drowsiness and other effects in the infant or decrease the milk supply, particularly in combination with a sympathomimetic such as pseudoephedrine or before lactation is well established. International guidelines recommend cetirizine, the racemic form of the drug, as an acceptable choice if an antihistamine is required during breastfeeding.[3,4]

“Summary of Use during Lactation”, LactMed record “Levocetirizine” (LM702), quoted verbatim. Everything LactMed reports about Levocetirizine while breastfeeding.

Nursing Mothers No peri- and post-natal animal studies have been conducted with levocetirizine. In mice, cetirizine caused retarded pup weight gain during lactation at an oral dose in dams that was approximately 40 times the maximum recommended daily oral dose in adults on a mg/m 2 basis. Studies in beagle dogs indicated that approximately 3% of the dose of cetirizine was excreted in milk. Cetirizine has been reported to be excreted in human breast milk. Because levocetirizine is also expected to be excreted in human milk, use of levocetirizine dihydrochloride in nursing mothers is not recommended.

Prescribing label, section “Nursing Mothers”: Levocetirizine Dihydrochloride (oral), Proficient Rx LP. Label on DailyMed. Quoted verbatim; US labels are written for US prescribers and patients.