It is used to lower uric acid levels in the body by enhancing its excretion in urine.
It is also rarely used by some doctors to help improve the effectiveness of certain antibiotics.
If you have G6PD (glucose-6-phospahate dehydrogenase) deficiency, please let your doctor know about it as probenecid has to be used with caution, if at all, or your doctor may want to avoid it altogether if safer alternative is available.
As using probenecid may increase the risk of urinary tract stone formation in certain patients, please let your doctor know if you have a history of kidney stone.
Your doctor would normally start it at a low dose and gradually increase the dose if necessary. This helps to make you tolerate the medication better. This also lessens the likelihood of the initial gout flares.
Be patient and take it at the dose recommended by your doctor. The benefits are slow to come.
As probenecid works by making you pass out more uric acid in your urine, you need to drink about 8 - 9 glasses of water throughout the whole day IF you are not told to restrict water intake by any of your doctors. This is to prevent the uric acid from becoming too concentrated in the urine which may lead to stone formation.
It is advisable to take probenecid with/immediately after meals to prevent nausea or vomiting.
If you forget to take you medication at the usual time, you can take it as soon as you remember about it. But if it is near the time for the next dose when this happens, just skip the missed dose and take the next dose as usual. Do not take more than the usual scheduled dose to make up for the missed dose.
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