Syrup May Be Safe, Cheap Fertility Aid : Coughing Could Lead--Indirectly--to Pregnancy

A sexually active Denver woman never expected much more than relief from bronchitis when her physician prescribed a widely available over-the-counter cough syrup, but soon after filling her prescription she became pregnant.

The woman had taken Robitussin syrup, which contains guaifenesin, a common ingredient of over-the-counter cough remedies that loosens congestion in the lungs. What she did not know was that some fertility specialists say the expectorant is a “cheap, safe and effective” fertility aid.

Dr. Jerome Check, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said that small doses of cough syrup or cold capsules containing guaifenesin can thin cervical mucus, which stops sperm from entering the cervical opening in some women.

“About 30% of women with only a cervical mucus problem will correct the problem by using Robitussin alone,” said Check, who uses Robitussin cough syrup and Breonesin cold capsules in his research.

Check said that other conventional fertility treatments can cost $600 a month but that “a bottle of Robitussin costs $1.70.”

Other fertility specialists do not agree that the more than 20 brand-name cough remedies and expectorants containing guaifenesin improve a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant.

“I have seen nothing to suggest that the use of guaifenesin improves cervical mucus,” said Dr. Anne Wentz, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Vanderbilt University. Wentz said Check’s research lacks academic merit because he did not conduct tests using scientific controls that would identify reasons other than cold remedies that women become pregnant.

Dr. Gilbert Haas Jr. of the University of Oklahoma is attempting that kind of controlled study and said he is “very disappointed with the results so far.” None of his patients has become pregnant on the guaifenesin regimen.

Nevertheless, Dr. Joseph Bellina, national adviser to the Child Health and Human Development Council of the National Institutes of Health, said he recommends the use of Robitussin to a patient “at least once a month.”

He said it would be impossible to do a study that would completely satisfy the academic community. “Infertility medicine is not an exact science,” Bellina said. “And, when a patient gets pregnant, she doesn’t give a damn how it happened, just that it did happen,” he added.

The Denver woman said she had been “very sexually active” for the last eight years without using contraceptives because she assumed that she was sterile. However, last March, after developing a case of bronchitis, her physician put her on Robitussin. She became pregnant soon afterward.

“It sure shocked me,” she said. “I can’t be sure if it (Robitussin) caused the pregnancy, but it sure is a strange coincidence.”