Infertility and Hormones

After all the blood tests, they finally informed you that it’s your hormones causing all the trouble. Hormone therapy might be very effective in treating infertility although there are some potential risks – so make sure you are informed!

Some medicine can regulate the concentrations of hormones in your system to assist your body to sort itself out.

These are for the ladies:

· Bromocriptine – Prolactin is great for producing milk, but suppresses ovulation, so bromocriptine controls prolactin and promotes the release of eggs. Side effects include headaches, nausea, low blood pressure and possibly dizziness as well.

· Clomiphene – Clomiphene stimulates the pituitary gland to make LH and FSH which stimulate the ovaries to release egg cells. Benefits are that it is relatively affordable and useful in women with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) or unpredictable periods although side effects may include insomnia, nausea, tender breasts and headaches.

· Metoformin – Stimulates ovulation by suppressing the male hormones in the body (usually a side effect of PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) or insulin resistance).

Actual hormones may also encourage ovulation.

· Human Menopausal Gonadotropin (hMG) – This contains LH (luteinizing hormone) and FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) which are obtained from the urine of postmenopausal women and is usually prescribed if you have difficulties with your pituitary gland and the other drugs haven’t worked. HMGs are quite costly and efficiency varies. The extra ultrasounds to check how the drug is doing its job will also add to the expense. Your risks of miscarriage or enlarged ovaries are amplified, as are your risks of multiple or premature births which have dangers of their own.

· Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) – These function in partnership with hMGs to stimulate ovulation and might also treat endometriosis although potential side effects include ovarian cysts, elevated odds of multiple births and enlarged ovaries.

· Urofollitropin (FSH) – prescribed if clomiphene is ineffective in stimulating ovulation in women suffering from PCOS.

· Luteinizing Hormone – Releasing Hormone (LH-RH) – These drugs may be prescribed to treat endometriosis or to regulate the pituitary gland. It is somewhat difficult to administer and it raises the odds of multiple births and infections.

· Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (Gn-RH) – Stimulates the pituitary gland to aid ovulation.

· Progesterone – Stimulates development of a healthy endometrium lining to receive the zygote.

For the guys:

Infertility hormones don’t work for guys as effectively as they do for the ladies, although they can be effective in certain situations. Here is a list of the medications and hormones that might be prescribed for the men. You’ll see that a couple of them are very much like those prescribed for women.

· Testosterone – Helps with general reproductive performance by mimicking natural testosterone.

· Gn-RH – This instructs the pituitary gland to release FSH, which instructs the testes to manufacture sperm, and LH, which directs the testes to make testosterone.

· Bromocriptine – Men can also have an excess of prolactin and this will prevent testosterone from being produced and cause sperm to be malformed. This can be treated with bromocriptine, make sure that you check out the risks first! Hallucinations are not fun…

· hCG & FSH – Help promote the production of sperm for men with reduced sperm count or reduced sperm motility. These are thought to be two of the most successful infertility hormones for men.

Possible dangers

Know what to expect from the medication you are taking to prevent any unwanted interactions. A possible risk of many infertility hormones is the increased chance of multiple pregnancies (at once). That might not seem like such a negative thing to you when you’re desperate to conceive. Having multiples brings about far more difficulties than single pregnancies including an elevated risk of premature birth and the complications that follow.

Once you’ve considered the risks and benefits you may decide that infertility hormones are best choice for your situation. Good Luck!

Here is more information on PCOS and Infertility. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Infertility.