Fertility drugs for women

For millions of women struggling to conceive, fertility drugs are the first step in treatment. What do these little pills and injections do exactly? In short, they promote ovulation.

What are common fertility drugs for women?

Your doctor may have you try one of these standard medications, which may be all you need to get pregnant:

• Clomiphene works by stimulating the hormones in your brain that trigger an egg (or several) to develop and be released from your ovaries.
• Gonadotropins stimulate your ovaries directly to produce an egg (or several).

Some women need to combine these drugs with intrauterine insemination (IUI) or an assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedure, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF). Women undergoing IVF also take other types of fertility medications to prepare the lining of the uterus for pregnancy and to prevent the ovaries from releasing eggs early.

How does fertility medication differ?

That depends on the woman and why she's having trouble getting pregnant. For instance, women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) generally respond well to clomiphene, but those who don't may be given the insulin-sensitizing drug metformin to help them ovulate. Some women with PCOS respond well to a combination of metformin and clomiphene.

Women with hyperprolactinemia have too much of the hormone prolactin in their blood, which interferes with ovulation. Women with this condition who want to conceive will most likely take bromocriptine or cabergoline to restore ovulation.

What are the risks of fertility drugs?

Many of these drugs have been used safely and successfully for more than 40 years. But like other fertility treatments, these drugs can increase the chance of conceiving multiples – and the more babies a woman carries, the greater the risk of complications, including miscarriage and premature labor. About 10 percent of women who take clomiphene have multiples (mostly twins), and about 30 percent of women who take gonadotropins have multiples (again, mostly twins).

Click on the links below for more information on the most popular ovulation-inducing medications, including their costs, success rates, and side effects.

• Clomiphene
  Brand names: Clomid and Serophene
• Gonadotropins
  Brand names: Repronex, Menopur, Bravelle, Follistim, Gonal-F