Who is Xenical Suitable For?

Some forms of Xenical are available without a prescription (or ‘over the counter’) and there are other types of Xenical for which you will need a prescription. If you are being prescribed this medication, you will be asked a series of questions about your medical background and any health issues which you may have. This is to determine whether or not Xenical is a suitable medication for you as there are some people who have medical conditions or health issues which prevent Xenical from being effective for them or possibly make it harmful to their health.

Contraindications of Xenical

Your prescriber will have two options in these cases, either they will not prescribe Xenical to you at all or they will take special care in prescribing the medication and ensure that you do the same when taking it.


Circumstances when this may happen are as follows:

  • You may be allergic to one or more of the ingredients in your Xenical medication (as most medicines contain multiple ingredients, each of which performs a function). You may not be allergic but simply sensitive to or prone to having reactions to one or more of the ingredients.
  • You may have liver problem such as hepatitis, cirrhosis, liver cancer or a hereditary disease. You can have a liver function test which may alert you to potential liver problems which you might have.
  • If you have kidney problems for example: kidney stones, kidney tumours or renal failure (or kidney failure). Kidney problems are often noticeable as the symptoms may include needing to urinate with greater frequency, unusual discharge in urine or pain in your urinary tract.
  • If you are elderly and do not have any of the other issues which are listed here then there still might be some risk associated with taking Xenical. You should consult with a medical practitioner, pharmacist or the person who is prescribing Xenical to you and seek advice on whether to take it. It is possible that you will be able to take Xenical but they may advise you to watch out for changes in your health, side effects and how your body is coping with any side effects.
  • If you have chronic malabsorption syndrome. This is when the ability of your GI tract to absorb nutrients is impaired due possibly to a tumour in your intestine or a reduced production of enzymes for another reason.
  • If you are breast-feeding. You may pass traces of the medication to an infant while you are breast-feeding them via your breast milk. This can have a harmful effect on the infant in some cases and for this reason you should avoid using Xenical until you are no longer breast-feeding.
  • You may have either obstructive or metabolic cholestasis. This is where bile cannot travel from your liver to your duodenum because there is either a blockage which is obstructing its passage or your bile is abnormally formed.
  • If you have epilepsy, which is a neurological condition where you have epileptic seizures (rather than seizures due to diabetes or a heart condition for example) which originate in the brain.
  • If you have hypothyroidism. This condition is when inadequate amounts of the thyroid hormone are produced in the thyroid gland. This is most commonly caused by a deficiency of iodine.
  • Xenical can also have the effect of reducing the amount of fluid which is in your body. For this reason, if you are at an increased risk of fluid loss or dehydration then you should either be careful when taking Xenical or not take it at all. This is because you might end up suffering from dehydration which can have serious consequences for your health.
  • If you are a child then you should not take Xenical. You should also not give Xenical to children if you are an adult. If you are an adult and you are taking Xenical then make sure that you keep it out of children’s reach in a safe place. 

It is also possible that you are suitable for taking Xenical. However, this situation can change over time (especially if you are taking Xenical for a longer period of time). It may be that you become unsuitable for taking Xenical while you are still having the medication, in which case you should contact the medical professional who prescribed it to you or the pharmacist who you received the Xenical from and seek their advice. This might be necessary if you develop a health problem such as those listed above while you are taking Xenical and for this reason it would be unwise to continue taking the medication. It is also possible that you stopped taking Xenical and later developed one of the above health issues, and due to this cannot start taking Xenical again. It is important to be aware of whether or not you are suitable for taking Xenical and also to be aware of whether your suitability changes at any point before, during or after taking Xenical.

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