Fertility drugs are prescribed medications that will mostly help influence ovulation. It can either start ovulation or help strengthen ovulation to release at least one or multiple eggs in one cycle. Fertility drugs are the most commonly used treatment for couples who are facing infertility, as the most common cause of infertility in women are ovulation difficulties.
Typically, it is the woman who is being prescribed the fertility medication, however, fertility drugs can be used with men, but it’s just not that common.
How to increase pregnancy chances in ovulating women?
There are basic types of medication that are used to induce ovulation: Clomid, Tamoxifen, Femara, Injectable gonadotropins, Injectable FSH hormone products. Treatment with these drugs has the potential to result in pregnancy if the woman has good quality eggs remaining in her ovaries, and if other causes of infertility are not present.
Clomid for women
Clomid (Clomiphene citrate) works by stimulating the hormones in women brain that trigger an egg (or several) to develop and be released from ovaries.
Clomid is the most widely used fertility drug.
Tamoxifen is used to treat infertility in women with anovulatory disorders. It is given at days 3-7 of a woman's cycle.
Tamoxifen did eventually receive marketing approval as a fertility treatment.
Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG or hCG) in a low dose, may be injected after completed ovarian stimulation.
Ovulation will occur between 38 and 40 hours after a single HCG injection.
In a multi-center study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Development, ovarian stimulation with letrozole resulted in a significantly lower frequency of multiple gestation (i.e., twins or triplets) but also a lower frequency of live birth, as compared with gonadotropin but not with clomiphene.
Fertility drugs are drugs which enhance reproductive fertility. For women, fertility medication is used to stimulate follicle development of the ovary.
Clomiphene (trademarked as Clomid) is a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM). Clomiphene is the most widely used fertility drug. It is used as an ovarian stimulator by inhibiting the negative feedback of estrogen at the hypothalamus. As the negative feedback of estrogen is inhibited, the hypothalamus secretes GnRh which in turn stimulates the anterior pituitary to secrete LH and FSH which help in ovulation.
Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is normally produced during pregnancy. However, it can also replace LH as an ovulation inducer.
Human Menopausal Gonadotrophin (hMG) is a medication containing a follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and a lutenizing hormone (LH).
Estrogen antagonists and gonadotropins may stimulate multiple follicles and other ovarian hormones leading to multiple birth and possible ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.
The chance of a successful pregnancy depends on the cause of infertility
Speak with a physician after one year of unsuccessfully trying to conceive. More than half of couples who seek infertility treatments eventually become pregnant.
