Loratadine

[Jonson]

Does it work? Anyone had try that?

[Frustrated]

sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278584605001260

I think you may be indirectly referencing the above study. It seems interesting and worth trying. Lotradine is available to purchase over the counter and it is pretty cheap and safe.

Lotradine works as an antagonist and on the h1 histamine receptor which is responsible for allergic reactions including the inflammatory response. There are histamine receptors to be found in the corpus cavernosum which could explain any potential benefits to be had. If anybody has any experiences to share about lotradine, please let us know.

[JG1]

I took loratadin for other purposes recently (in short amounts of time, no longer than 7 days) : no effects on sexual problems.

[Jonson]

But how much mg ?

[Frustrated]

The study tested 10mg - the OTC dose - on a small group of men. I saw two guys that claimed to have improvements on another forum as well so I think it is worth an effort, especially since many speculate post-SSRI syndrome and PFS share the same or a similar root cause.

[axolotl]

Thought I’d resurrect this with some thoughts.

I am a very severe case of PFS, and when I first crashed I remained severely derealised to the point I couldn’t cook for about 4 months. I thus read pretty much every anecdote on the internet re the finasteride disease. I found on some random website a mild case (mainly erectile dysfunction/libido after finasteride) who said he took loratadine, a lipophilic antihistamine, coincidentally and his sexual function restored. I remembered this the other day and thought it was strange, so decided to do a little research. I believe AR overexpression is crucial in this condition, which awor of course hypothesised. So I began with the hypothesis that somehow loratadine was able to interact with this. I first found these anecdotes:

Fluoxetine-induced sexual dysfunction reversed by loratadine, J Clin Psychiatry. 2002 Jun;63(6):534

"About 12 months ago, one of my male clients with major depression who previously had experienced sexual dysfunction with fluoxetine, 5 mg/day, restarted taking fluoxetine, 5 mg/day, while also taking loratadine, 2.5 mg/day, for allergic rhinitis…Whereas before with fluoxetine he had reported dulling of penile sensation and delayed erection and ejaculation, in the presence of loratadine none of these side effects were present and he reported normal sexual function, which continued at last report.

Due to this initial success with loratadine, over the next 9 months I prescribed, with informed consent, loratadine for fluoxetine-induced sexual dysfunction in 9 additional patients (5 men and 4 women) with a diagnosis of major depression. Seven of 9 patients had complete reversal of sexual dysfunction within 2 days, and the other 2 experienced significant improvement of sexual side effects. One male patient, who had partial impotence and low libido, had function restored to a prefluoxetine state by taking loratadine, 10 mg, 1 day before planned sexual activity. Side effects of loratadine ranged from none to mild-to-moderate dry mouth and sedation, which responded to bedtime dosing or reduction in dose. No change was seen on effectiveness of fluoxetine for depression, although the patients were happy to have their sexual function restored.

Furthermore, a female patient taking nefazadone and sertraline responded nicely to the addition of loratadine for low sexual interest and anorgasmia. I also prescribed loratadine for low sexual interest and anorgasmia to a female patient taking paroxetine and a male patient experiencing impotence who was being treated with citalopram, but neither had a positive response. I have no explanation for this lack of efficacy."

Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2005 Jun;29(5):754-6 (Linked in an earlier post in this thread):

“Nine patients diagnosed as major depressive disorder (MDD), with erectile dysfunction associated with the administration of SSRIs, completed a 2-week trial of loratadine in the dose of 10 mg/day…Subjects had statistically significant improvement in their erectile functions and 55% reported subjective improvement of the erectile function…Our findings suggest the possible role of loratadine in the treatment of SSRI-associated sexual dysfunction. They are promising, but preliminary. Thus they should be replicated in a longer large-scale, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.”

Quotes collected by Ghost, the moderator of a PSSD forum:

“I began to suffer Stuffy nose. It’s a nasty side effect from [levitra]…I took 20mg of levitra together with Loratadine to counteract the stuffy nose. And about 40 minutes later, I started to have a hard rock erection, just with my libido and nothing else, no other stimulation. I almost couldn’t stop the erection during 4 hours!.. This is so weird. This is the first time since PSSD that I have to fight to stop an erection!. (Aside from my priapism induced by Trimix)…Levitra alone doesn’t work for the erection! I’ve tried it thousand of times without success. Loratadine does something! It can’t be coincidence. Although No effect over the anesthesia and orgasm.”

I believe there’s a common situation to these disorders so this interested me. Someone on propeciahelp also said it cleared their brain fog to pre fin but gave them new symptoms of ED and no libido. I decided to begin googling regarding loretadine and the androgen receptor and found a study entitled “Loratadine Exerts Estrogen-Like Effects and Disrupts Penile Development in the Mouse”. The study states:

“Loratadine exposed males with and without hypospadias had significantly higher levels of androgen receptor mRNA expression than the male controls.”

“Loratadine exposed males with hypospadias exhibited a significant increase in estrogen receptor mRNA expression compared to control males. However, loratadine exposed males without hypospadias were no different from control males. Levels of estrogen receptor mRNA did not change in any group as a result of exposure to loratadine (data not shown).”

“As commonly occurs, not all male mice in this study had development of hypospadias. This outcome is probably attributable to the fact that hypospadias is most likely under multifactorial influence, and that some individuals are predisposed to environmental influence.1 The mouse strain used in this study (CD1) has been identified as one of the least susceptible to estrogenic disruption.10 Loratadine shares some characteristics with compounds known to act as antiandrogens, including a similar motif of a halogenated carbon ring. In the case of p,p=-DDE, procymidone and loratadine, among others, the halogen is chlorine. Previous research with the rat has demonstrated that p,p=-DDE and procymidone cause hypospadias.11”

“The effect of loratadine exposure on steroid receptor mRNA expression followed a clear pattern of producing female-like results in exposed males, and also exhibited a pattern of more extreme response in males with hypospadias. These results are similar to those observed following exposure to a known estrogen. Ethinyl estradiol exposure results in outcomes similar to those identified in this study at all levels of assessment, including mRNA (unpublished data), and macroscopic and histological morphology.2 Exposure to this synthetic estrogen with the same regimen used for loratadine in this study resulted in an increase in androgen receptor mRNA expression and in estrogen receptor expression (unpublished data).”

It would seem from these results that Loretadine is antiandrogenic and is, administered in utero, able to induce changes (notably overexpression of the AR) that apparently correlate with penile developmental problems. It’s also remarkable to my mind that the graph in the study shows a big difference in the MRNA AR overexpression between the mice who did develop hypospadias and those that didn’t.

Many substances with anti-androgenic properties (herbs, foods, mineral supplementation such as zinc) often give improvement or worsening to PFS patients. I would therefore assume that loratadine may have some affect on some people with PFS, PSSD or PAS.

[vanquish]

I’m willing to give this a try. If anybody else tried it, please report.

[robbo]

worth a try…

[xptriado]

someone should try this indeed!

[vanquish]

I’ve begun a 2 weeks trial, started yesterday, 10 mg loratadine every night before sleep. I’ll report changes, if any.

[vanquish]

It’s been 12 days and no change whatsoever. I’m going to use it a few more days but I guess I can say now that it didn’t do anything.

[axolotl]

Thanks for the update and trial vanquish. Good to hear there were no negatives, at least. If there’s any change in the weeks after use it’d be good to hear.

[Mcbbould]

I take it this did nothing?

[vanquish]

Yes.

[lbv]

I’ve taken Loratadine in the past around 2019, didn’t do anything for me. It’s probably not strong enough for most people.