Drug & supplement interaction

Male Fern + Dolutegravir

Dolutegravir brand name: Tivicay.

No Known Interaction
Medically reviewed by · Updated July 2026 · Pair last verified Sep 27, 2026
The bottom line No known interaction

We found no known interaction between Male Fern and Dolutegravir in our sources. Absence of a documented interaction is not the same as proven safety, and does not guarantee one does not exist. Do not start, stop, or change a medication or supplement based on this page; confirm with your pharmacist or doctor first. Additionally, although there is no interaction, the two are separately associated with some of the same side effects, which would make a new symptom harder to attribute to one or the other.

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Interaction report

Male Fern and Dolutegravir

We checked these two against our interaction database. Here is what we found.

No Known Interaction Found

We did not find a documented interaction between Dolutegravir and Male Fern in our sources. This does not guarantee that the combination is completely free of risk — there is often limited research on supplements and herbal products, especially around drug interactions.

Worth understanding: our licensed dataset holds no drug-interaction record for Male Fern at all — not against Dolutegravir, and not against any other medication we track. This verdict therefore rests on the absence of any recorded data, not on research that looked at this combination and found nothing. We cannot rule an interaction out.

If you decide to take both, the practical routine is simple: add one new thing at a time and note the date you started it. If the combination is going to disagree with you, it usually shows in the first days to a couple of weeks — and a start date turns “I’ve been feeling off” into something a pharmacist can actually work with. Do not stop a prescribed medicine on your own.

Always talk with your pharmacist or doctor before making changes to your medications or supplements, particularly if you take several medications or have an ongoing health condition.

Male Fern safety at a glance

Male Fern overall Avoid Male fern is potentially toxic and has a very narrow margin between an effective and a poisonous dose.
Pregnancy Likely Unsafe When used orally; contraindicated. There is insufficient reliable information available about the safety of male fern used topically; avoid using. Read the full pregnancy detail
Breastfeeding Likely Unsafe When used orally; contraindicated. There is insufficient reliable information available about the safety of male fern used topically; avoid using. Read the full breastfeeding detail

Pregnancy & breastfeeding ratings are from Natural Medicines (Therapeutic Research Center) — the full detail is in the Special populations card below. Safety guidance is general; always confirm with your pharmacist or doctor for your situation.

Still wondering about combining Dolutegravir and Male Fern? Ask Dr. Brian Staiger, PharmD, BCPS directly ›
What to actually watch for

No Interaction Found — But Data Suggests Male Fern and Dolutegravir May Share a Side Effect

This is not an interaction. Neither one changes how your body handles the other, and nothing here says they react together. What our sources do show is that each has separately been linked to the effects below — so taking both can make those effects more likely to turn up, and harder to pin on one or the other if they do.

  • Headache reported in 4.6% of FDA reports for Dolutegravir Additional detail

    Male Fern

    “Orally, male fern can cause coma, headaches, muscle weakness, seizures, tremors, and vertigo (6,11).”

    Male Fern · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in epilepsy.

    2 sources cited
    1. 6. The Review of Natural Products by Facts and Comparisons. St. Louis, MO: Wolters Kluwer Co., 1999.
    2. 11. Leung AY, Foster S. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients Used in Food, Drugs and Cosmetics. 2nd ed. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1996.

    Dolutegravir

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Dolutegravir, and in voluntary FDA adverse-event reports. Read the label on DailyMed ›

Reported for Male Fern but not commonly for Dolutegravir: muscle weakness, loss of vision, diarrhea and seizures.

Effects for Dolutegravir come from the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of its FDA label; effects for Male Fern come from the Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, quoted above. Where a percentage is shown, it is the share of 19,465 voluntary FDA FAERS reports for Dolutegravir that mention that effect — a reporting proportion, not an incidence rate and not evidence the drug caused it. Wording is matched across sources by our own clinical vocabulary, so treat this as a prompt to pay attention, not a diagnosis.

Special populations

Male Fern in Pregnancy & Breastfeeding

Pregnancy And Lactation Likely Unsafe

When used orally; contraindicated. There is insufficient reliable information available about the safety of male fern used topically; avoid using.

DISCLAIMER: This tool is intended for informational purposes only, and should not be interpreted as specific medical advice. Patients should consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making decisions about therapies and/or health conditions.© 2026 Therapeutic Research Center

Everything else you take

See Every Supplement That Interacts With Dolutegravir

This page covers Male Fern only. If you take other supplements — a multivitamin, a sleep aid, something for joints — the Dolutegravir page lists 65 supplements it has a documented interaction with, worst first, each one explained.

The most serious there right now: Activated Charcoal (major), Calcium (major), St. John's Wort (major), Bitter Melon (moderate) and Black Pepper (moderate).

By severity: 3 major · 46 moderate · 16 minor.

From our pharmacist’s overview on the Dolutegravir page

“Dolutegravir (Tivicay) works only when its blood level stays high enough to keep HIV suppressed, so a supplement that drags that level down can let the virus rebound, and this list warrants genuine care. Three of the 65 entries are rated major.”

Reviewed by 2 · Jul 18, 2026

Open the Dolutegravir interaction page

One more smart check

Taking Male Fern as Part of a Dietary Supplement Product? Check It for Interactions

We hold 35 real supplement products containing Male Fern, each one broken down to its full ingredient list — and combination products often carry several ingredients besides Male Fern. Even though Male Fern itself has no known interaction with Dolutegravir, another ingredient on your label might. Find your product and we’ll check every ingredient on its label:

How much people look this up

Where Male Fern and Dolutegravir Sit Against Everything Else

Out of every supplement and medication people look up on HelloPharmacist, here is where these two land this week — and which way each has been moving.

Supplement Male Fern
Steady interest

#1,336 of 1,452 supplements looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today
Medication Dolutegravir
Top 25%

#575 of 2,830 medications looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today

Position among everything looked up on this site, not a measure of how commonly either one is used or how important it is. A supplement can climb this list because of a news story. It counts every request to the page, automated ones included, and nothing here identifies anyone.

Where does our data come from?
  • Source: the Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) clinical database — the evidence-graded professional reference for herb & supplement interactions.
  • Citation library: 103,510 references behind our interaction content, 65,311 of them resolved to verified PubMed/DOI sources. See every Male Fern reference on this page ↓
  • Freshness: we automatically re-check this combination every week — this pair was last verified September 27, 2026. The Male Fern and Dolutegravir records this page draws on were last updated July 10, 2026.
  • What “no known interaction” means: no documented interaction in the sources above — not a guarantee of safety. Supplements are studied far less than prescription drugs, so we say exactly what the evidence supports, and nothing more.
Data structure & sourcing designed and verified by .
Supplement

About Male Fern

What is Male Fern?

  • Intestinal worms (especially tapeworm)
  • Traditional deworming remedy
  • Folk wound care

Male fern is an old herbal remedy that was once used as a powerful treatment to expel tapeworms. It is now considered outdated and potentially dangerous because of its narrow safety margin and risk of serious poisoning, and safer modern medicines have replaced it. It should not be used for self-treatment.

Dryopteris filix-mas · Dryopteridaceae · Rhizome (underground stem) and root · Liquid extract (oleoresin), capsules, and historically a crude root powder

An interaction check asks whether these two react with each other — it does not ask whether Male Fern is a good idea for someone in your situation. Here is what our Male Fern record says about it on its own.

Male Fern: dosing

There is no safe, established self-care dose for male fern, and it is not recommended for home use. In the past it was given by medical professionals in carefully measured amounts under supervision, precisely because the line between an effective and a toxic dose is so thin.If you ever encounter a product containing male fern, do not guess at a dose.

From our Male Fern monograph — the full record covers uses, side effects and every documented interaction.

Read the full Male Fern monograph & all interactions
Medication

About Dolutegravir

What Is Dolutegravir Used For?

Brand name: Tivicay

Tivicay and Tivicay PD are used together with other antiretroviral medicines to treat HIV-1 infection. This includes adults who are new to treatment (treatment-naïve) or who have taken HIV medicines before (treatment-experienced), as well as children who have not previously taken a type of HIV medicine called an integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI).

Tivicay (but not Tivicay PD) is also approved as a complete two-drug regimen combined with rilpivirine for adults with HIV-1 who are already virologically suppressed — meaning their virus is very well controlled on a stable treatment — and who have no history of treatment failure or resistance to either medicine.

Most-Reported Side Effects for Dolutegravir

From FAERS, the FDA’s public side-effect reporting system (19,465 reports, all brands). Reports are voluntary and are not proof the drug caused the effect.

Anxiety 1,892 reports
Emotional distress 1,748 reports
Anhedonia 1,579 reports
Chronic kidney disease 1,161 reports
Fatigue 1,057 reports
See full Dolutegravir drug information
Keep checking

Other Drugs & Male Fern

Browse every other medication we’ve checked against Male Fern — both the ones with a known interaction and the ones without. Select any drug for the full detail.

0Major
0Moderate
0Minor
2,829No known interaction
2,829 No interaction
No interaction 2,829 drugs checked — show the list

We also checked Male Fern against these medications and found no known interaction in our sources. Open any page to confirm.

Showing the 60 most looked-up of 2,829 medications checked with no known interaction — see the full Male Fern list.

See the full Male Fern interactions page
See every supplement checked against Dolutegravir, ranked by severity
Evidence & sources

Male Fern References

The 3 references that drive our Male Fern monograph and interaction data, from the evidence-graded Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) database. Citations with a link open the study on PubMed or the publisher’s site.

  1. The Review of Natural Products by Facts and Comparisons. St. Louis, MO: Wolters Kluwer Co., 1999.
  2. Leung AY, Foster S. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients Used in Food, Drugs and Cosmetics. 2nd ed. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1996.
  3. McGuffin M, Hobbs C, Upton R, Goldberg A, eds. American Herbal Products Association's Botanical Safety Handbook. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, LLC 1997.

Medication overviews come from MedlinePlus (NIH); supplement label data from the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database. Content is written and reviewed by licensed HelloPharmacist pharmacists — see our data sources and editorial standards.

Pharmacist Counseling Corner

Taking Male Fern and Dolutegravir Together: Common Questions

Is it safe to take Male Fern with Dolutegravir?
We do not list a known interaction between Male Fern and Dolutegravir. That does not guarantee the combination is risk-free, so confirm with your pharmacist or doctor — especially if you take other medications or have a health condition.
Do Male Fern and Dolutegravir have any of the same side effects?
Yes — our sources link each of them separately to one of the same effects. That is not an interaction: neither changes how your body handles the other. It does mean that if one of those effects turns up, it can be harder to tell which one is behind it. They are listed on this page with the source behind each.
Does Dolutegravir interact with any supplements?
Yes. Dolutegravir has documented interactions with 65 supplements in our database — Male Fern is not one of them. The Dolutegravir interaction page linked on this page lists every one, ranked by severity.

Written and reviewed by the HelloPharmacist editorial staff. Our editorial policy

Where next

Keep Exploring

Male Fern monograph Uses, safety profile, and every drug interaction in one place Dolutegravir drug information The full plain-English guide to this medication Dolutegravir supplement interactions Every supplement checked against Dolutegravir, ranked by severity Supplement interaction checker Check any supplement or product against your medications Browse medications A–Z Every drug we’ve checked against herbs & supplements References The 3 citations behind this page Ask a pharmacist Free, personal answer from our licensed team

Still Have a Question About Dolutegravir and Male Fern?

Our pharmacists answer your medication & supplement questions — free.

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This information is for education only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always check with your pharmacist or doctor before starting, stopping, or combining supplements and medications.