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You can get pregnant by having a cough medicine, claim some women in TikTok. Like many other health hacks and 'home remedies', this has been going viral on the video-sharing platform, but medical experts are throwing in some reality checks now.

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The medicine doing the rounds as a fertility treatment is Mucinex, or more specifically, the ingredient guaifenesin, which clears mucus and phlegm from the chest.

The 'Mucinex Method' claims have been doing the rounds for months now, with millions of views and even a hashtag #mucinexdpregnancy on TikTok.

In one such TikTok video, a woman said she took the medicine 30 minutes before sexual intercourse and it worked. Any kind of Mucinex or medicine with guaifenesin will work, claimed Amanda MacGibbon, a lifestyle influencer.

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Now, writing in The Conversation, two medical experts have sought to dispel the unusual medical properties being attributed to Mucinex, which is manufactured by Reckitt.

Adam Watkins from the University of Nottingham and Emma Lucas from the University of Sheffield say that there's little scientific evidence to back the claim that Mucinex is good for fertility.

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The most cited study is also outdated. Published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, the 1982 study involved 40 couples, pointed out the experts.

The female subjects of the study took 200mg of guaifenesin three times per day from the fifth day of their menstruation onwards.

Eventually, 15 out of 40 couples had babies. But there's a catch. This group of couples were not compared with a set of subjects who did not take guaifenesin, meaning there was no control group to countercheck the results.

Also read: Pregnancy takes a toll on the biological age of women: Study

There was also a study on a 32-year-old man who saw a dramatic increase in sperm production and motility after taking 600mg of guaifenesin twice a day for two months. However, a single individual cannot be taken as a case study for a medical breakthrough, noted the experts. 

Reckitt, the pharma giant, had said that Mucinex should be used only "in line with label directions" as intended, which means taking it as a fertility treatment amounts to off-label use.

So, how to get pregnant?

Approved fertility medication and treatment, as well as changes in diet and lifestyle are crucial for becoming pregnant, noted the experts.

They suggested avoiding smoking, limiting the use of alcohol, maintaining a healthy weight and lowering stress as other ways to help achieve the desired result.

Consulting your physician is the simplest and best way, they concluded.

(With inputs from agencies)