Infertility: The Option of Using Fertility Drugs

Fertility Drugs

How they work
Oral or injectible drugs for both men and women are prescribed to stimulate ovulation and get the
reproductive system back on track. Some take these meds with another treatment, such as artificial insemination.

Condition for Fertility Drugs
In his book The Baby Solution: Your Essential Resource for Overcoming Infertility, Daniel Kenigsberg, M.D., wrote that women need the right balance of hormones to ovulate regularly, and fertility drugs can do the trick. Many of these drugs have been proven safe over the years, with impressive success rates.
Dr. Joan Tan-Garcia, endocrinologist, infertility and menopause specialist, explains that men need certain hormones to produce healthy sperm as well. Men with low sperm count or poor sperm quality and motility (sperm’s ability to move) are given medication for this. The same substance that controls ovulation in women also stimulates sperm production. But the drugs don’t perform nearly as well for men, and the FDA has yet to approve these drugs for men; only specialists can prescribe them. Studies on their effects on men are limited and still inconclusive.
Prescribing ovulation-inducing agents should be based on the causes of infertility, explains Dr. Tan-Garcia. “We cannot just give medicine right away on the patient’s first visit. Make sure you’ve exhausted all possible causes for infertility before taking any medication. The side effects of the meds prescribed should be double-checked,” she adds.

Click here to read on about fertility medication for women and for men, as well as their side effects.

[previous|page|next]

Read on about fertility medication for women and for men, as well as their side effects.

Medication for women:
•    Clomiphene citrate (Clomid or Serophene) is prescribed to patients with ovulatory disorders by stimulating hormones in your brain to release an egg (or several). Clomid is not useful for women whose ovaries have stopped functioning.
•    Gonadotropins are protein hormones injected directly to the ovaries to stimulate egg production. For some women, this is all they need to conceive.

Medication for men:
•    Clomiphene stimulates testosterone production and possibly higher sperm count.
•    Gonadotropin prompts direct production of testosterone and sperm.

Side effects:
About 10% of women who take Clomid have multiples (mostly twins), as do 10% to 40% of women who take gonadotropin. Dr. Tan-Garcia explains that clomiphene is an anti-estrogen that causes cervical mucus to thin, so it is not an ideal fi rst option when treating infertility.

On men, both clomiphene and gonadotropin cause temporary blurred vision, breast enlargement and tenderness, and weight gain.

Success rate:
Estimated at 20% to 60% for women and 20% to 25% for men. Prolonged intake doesn’t increase your chance of success.

Source:
Joan Tan-Garcia, M.D. reproductive endocrinologist, infertility and menopause specialist, St. Luke’s Medical Center, Manila Doctor’s Hospital, and Medical City

Photo from sxc.hu