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Infertility Treatment Options |
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Infertility Treatment Options
Common Infertility Medicine
CLOMIPHENE THERAPY is typically used for 5 consecutive days early in the menstrual cycle, for 3 to 6 monthly cycles. It may take several cycles to find the right dose to stimulate ovulation. After that dose is determined, a woman will take the drug for at least 3 more cycles. If she does not become pregnant after 6 cycles, it is unlikely that further clomiphene treatment will be successful.
HUMAN MENOPAUSAL GONADOTROPIN (HMG) is essentially a mixture of FSH, LH and hCG (the latter being a hormone that has Luteinising Hormone-like activity.
hMG hormone treatments are extracted and purified from the urine of postmenopausal women. Regardless of the level of purification claimed by this urinary product, it is not a truly purified gonadotropin. Urinary protein contaminants prevent truly precise control of fertility hormones in women.
hMG products are used to treat infertility in women caused by anovulation by stimulating follicular development, as well as to treat infertility in men with hypo- or normagonadotropic hypogonadism, and in combination with hCG to stimulate spermatogenesis.
FOLLICLE-STIMULATING HORMONE (FSH) is a hormone synthesized and secreted by gonadotropes in the anterior pituitary gland. FSH regulates the development, growth, pubertal maturation, and reproductive processes of the human body. FSH and Luteinizing hormone (LH) act synergistically in reproduction:
Effects in Females
FSH stimulates the growth and recruitment of immature Ovarian follicles in the ovary. As the follicle matures, one becomes dominant. It releases inhibin and estradiol, both of which decrease FSH production by inhibiting GnRH production in the hypothalamus.[1]
Effects in males
FSH enhances the production of androgen-binding protein by the Sertoli cells of the testes, and is critical for spermatogenesis.
HUMAN CHORIONIC GONADOTROPIN (HCG) is a glycoprotein hormone produced in pregnancy that is made by the the developing embryo soon after conception and later by the syncytiotrophoblast (part of the placenta). Its role is to prevent the disintegration of the corpus luteum of the ovary and thereby maintain progesterone production that is critical for a pregnancy in humans. hCG may have additional functions; for instance, it is thought that hCG affects the immune tolerance of the pregnancy. Early pregnancy testing, in general, is based on the detection or measurement of hCG. Because hCG is produced also by some kinds of tumor, hCG is an important tumor marker, but it is not known whether this production is a contributing cause or an effect of tumorigenesis.
PROGESTERONE is one of the hormones in our bodies that stimulates and regulates various functions. Progesterone plays a role in maintaining pregnancy. The hormone is produced in the ovaries, the placenta (when a woman gets pregnant) and the adrenal glands. It helps prepare your body for conception and pregnancy and regulates the monthly menstrual cycle. It also plays a role in sexual desire.
During the reproductive years, the pituitary gland in the brain generates hormones (follicle-stimulating hormone [FSH] and luteinizing hormone [LH]) that cause a new egg to mature and be released from its ovarian follicle each month. As the follicle develops, it produces the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone, which thicken the lining of the uterus. Progesterone levels rise in the second half of the menstrual cycle, and following the release of the egg (ovulation), the ovarian tissue that replaces the follicle (the corpus luteum) continues to produce estrogen and progesterone.
ESTROGEN is the hormone that stimulates growth of the uterine lining (endometrium), causing it to thicken during the pre-ovulatory phase of the cycle.
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