Improve Fertility With Fertility Drugs

In Vitro Fertilization is not as straightforward as many people think and there is a strong chance that a woman will need fertility drugs and possibly surgery to help start the process. For a woman, if you aren't ovulating (producing and releasing an egg each month) at all, or only sometimes, fertility drugs – which trigger egg production in much the same way as your body's own hormones – can help.

This is known as ovulation induction and whilst you may get pregnant using fertility drugs alone, they are more often used with other treatments such as Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Clomiphene Citrate, usually known simply as Clomid, is the oldest and probably the most widely used fertility drug. It is used to trigger the brain to produce more estrogen which helps to triggers the woman's ovaries into producing more eggs.

Surgery used to be popular when In Vitro Fertilization and Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection treatments were less advanced and available, but an operation can still help infertility in some cases. Inflammation and scarring which can cause blocked tubes are an ideal situation where surgery is still useful, and for infections like Chlamydia. Others include Fibroids, Endometriosis and other conditions affecting the womb or tubes. Fortunately, nowadays keyhole surgery is the norm and your physician at the fertility clinic will be the best person to advise you on available courses of action.

The use of drugs in male infertility is not as prominent as they are with treating infertility in women. However, they may occasionally be prescribed in certain situations. These may include antibiotics to treat infection or inflammation, and vitamins C and E to improve sperm movement, although there is no convincing evidence that this improves the chance of pregnancy. If you can't produce any sperm, for example, you may have had a vasectomy or a failed reversal, a small operation known as surgical sperm retrieval can be carried out to remove the sperm from the Epididymis (where sperm are made) or the testicles.

Fertility Drugs injected to stimulate ovulation do increase your chances of a multiple pregnancy and birth: twins, triplets or more. If you are taking fertility drugs with Intrauterine Insemination, many doctors will cancel a cycle in which you produce a large number of follicles or egg sacs as this increases your chances even more. This process if reducing the chances of multiple births is lowered by replacing one or two embryos when using In Vitro Fertilization treatment.

Owing to the complexity of this subject, this article is only able to give a very brief overview of the drugs and surgery available.