Zelnorm Sexual Side Effects: An Overview
Zelnorm® (
tegaserod maleate) is a prescription medication that has been licensed to treat irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) with
constipation in women and chronic idiopathic constipation (chronic constipation with no known cause) in people less than 65 years old. As with all medicines, Zelnorm has possible side effects. In clinical studies prior to the approval of Zelnorm, there were no reported sexual side effects. Sexual problems have also not been reported in the time since Zelnorm was approved.
Understanding Clinical Trials
Before medicines are approved, they must go through several clinical studies in which thousands of people are given a particular medicine and compared to a group of people not given the medicine. In these studies, side effects are always documented. This way, it is possible to see what side effects occur, how often they appear, and how they compare to the group not taking the medicine. Side effects are then usually separated into those that occur in more than 1 percent of people and those that occur in less than 1 percent of people. Sexual side effects, such as a decrease in sex drive (libido) or
impotence, were not reported as either a common or rare side effect with Zelnorm during these studies.
Yet, clinical trials are designed to factor out many possible variables in order to understand whether the medicine works and its possible side effects. This means that once the medicine is approved, it is possible that new side effects may occur, since a wider range of people are now taking the medicine and for longer periods of time. However, once a medicine is approved, there are usually no more studies conducted on it, so certain side effects that occur very rarely may never be documented (especially if they are not serious side effects). The bottom line is that it's possible that a medicine may cause a side effect that hasn't been reported before.
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