Drospirenone: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Drospirenone is a medicine sold in the U.S. under one brand. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Available as
- Tablet, chewable · Tablet
- Sold as
- Drospirenone
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Yes
Every drospirenone product we track (1)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
Only one: Drospirenone.
Combination products containing drospirenone
A combination is a different drug — different dosing, different warnings. It is listed here so you can find it, not so you can substitute it.
Can you crush or split drospirenone?
At least one drospirenoneproduct is labelled to be swallowed whole — crushing an extended-release tablet releases the whole day’s dose at once. Which applies depends on the form you were given.
What each drospirenone label says about crushing, splitting and chewingHow long drospirenone keeps
No drospirenone label we read sets a separate limit for after opening, but they do specify how it must be stored — and the stability behind any date assumes those conditions.
Does drospirenone expire? The in-use limits and storage rules from its labelsDrospirenone and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for drospirenone: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadDrospirenone is a progestin that is an analogue of spironolactone. It has antimineralocorticoid and antiandrogenic activities. Amounts in milk are very low and no adverse effects on the breasted infant or milk supply are expected. Expert opinion holds that the risks of progestin-only contraceptive products usually are acceptable for nursing mothers at any time postpartum. For further information, consult the record entitled, Contraceptives, Oral, Combined.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised December 15, 2025. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about drospirenone
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 6,271 reports naming drospirenone, and the FDA flagged 83% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- injury1,312 reports
- cholecystitis chronic1,037 reports
- pulmonary embolism941 reports
- anxiety862 reports
- deep vein thrombosis810 reports
- gallbladder disorder792 reports
- cholelithiasis715 reports
- emotional distress699 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean drospirenone caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 25, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
Can you take drospirenone with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run drospirenone against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What forms does drospirenone come in?
Across the brands we track, drospirenone is currently marketed as tablet, chewable and tablet, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic drospirenone?
Yes. Our catalog lists 1 generic drospirenone product alongside the brand versions. A generic has the same active ingredient and must meet the FDA's bioequivalence standard; it usually costs less. Ask your pharmacist which one your plan covers.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Drospirenone: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/drospirenone
- MLA
- “Drospirenone: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/drospirenone.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for drospirenone on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.