Drugs Used In Fertility Treatment

For many couples facing infertility, fertility drugs offer a first line of treatment. Every year millions of women use fertility drugs to enhance their chances of conceiving. Most of these women will find use of drugs successful. Fertility drugs have in fact been used for more than 30 years to help promote fertility and stimulate ovulation and normal progesterone cycling in women with hormonal and ovulation problems contributing to infertility.

For many women, prescription drugs offer a simple and effective solution for combating infertility.

Common Fertility Drugs

The more commonly used fertility drugs among women include Clomid and Serophene, otherwise known as clomiphene citrate and hMG or human menopausal gonadotrophin, including Pergonal.

While Clomid and similar drugs are taken in oral form, hMG must be injected into the body. The latter help stimulate the hypothalamus or pituitary glands in the body, which may help the body produce more follicle stimulating and luteinizing hormones, key hormones for influencing fertility and ovulation. Use of these hormones stimulates the ovaries to produce mature eggs, increasing the likelihood in any given cycle that a women will conceive.

Clomid and Serophene can be used to help stimulate normal ovulatory cycles in women. Some women who take fertility drugs are more likely to conceive multiples than women who do not use fertility treatments, but this isn't always the case. The incidence of multiples in women taking fertility drugs is much lower than the incidence of multiples in women undergoing more invasive procedures including IVF.

Who Can Use Fertility Drugs

Most women are candidates for fertility drugs. They are especially useful for women with hormonal disorders including polycystic ovary syndrome. Women who experience difficulty ovulating normally or who have a short luteal phase may benefit from using fertility drugs.

Interestingly, some men may also be candidates for hormonal treatment, particularly those that have poor sperm quality or motility originating from pituitary hormonal imbalances. By and large however women are more likely candidates for hormone regulating fertility drugs than men are.

Most women will attempt using prescription fertility drugs for up to six of their normal cycles. Some studies however suggest that use of fertility drugs may be safe or implicated for as many as 12 cycles. The length of time you use prescription fertility drugs will depend on many factors including your health, ovulatory cycles and your risk for complications associated with using fertility treatments. As long as a woman is ovulating regularly during treatment, it is typically safe for a woman to continue treatment.

During treatment with fertility drugs you will need to be under constant care from your doctor of fertility specialist. Certain fertility drugs including Clomid carry with them a risk of ovarian hyperstimulation, a condition where the ovaries are over stimulated. Fortunately your doctor can evaluate the efficacy and safety of drug therapy treatment and address any side effects associated with medication use. Some women will get pregnant on their first cycle of fertility drugs, while others will undergo several treatments before realizing success. Still others will need to consider other choices including IUI or IVF treatment if use of fertility drugs does not help them conceive.

Evaluating The Need For Fertility Drugs

If you and your partner are over the age of 35 and have been trying to conceive for six months or more your doctor may recommend trying fertility drugs. Likewise if you are healthy and under the age of 35 but have tried to conceive unsuccessfully for more than 1 year your doctor may recommend fertility drugs. Fertility drugs may also be useful for women experiencing secondary infertility. Fertility drugs provide a relatively non-invasive and effective form of therapy for many women experiencing infertility.