BRAND NAMES
• Pergonal, Humegon, Repronex (luteinizing hormone or LH and follicle stimulating hormone or FSH)
• Metrodin, Fetinex, Follistim, Gonal F (FSH)
• Perganyl (human chorionic gonadotropin or hCG)
HOW IT WORKS
Gonadotropins consist of purified follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). When injected into your body, FSH makes you start developing egg follicles. After seven to 12 days of shots, you'll get an injection of another substance called human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which tells your ovaries to release the egg or eggs it has just developed.
This drug is most often given to women with low estrogen levels who have not responded to clomiphene. Other possibilities include women with polycystic ovarian syndrome, luteal phase defects, unexplained infertility, and those about to embark on an ART procedure.
LENGTH OF TREATMENT
Treatment can begin any time you're not ovulating and continue daily for seven to 12 days each month depending on how long it takes for your eggs to mature. Since this is an injection therapy, your doctor might train you or your partner to give the shot. During the therapy, your doctor will monitor you to see when you ovulate — frequent pelvic exams, trans-vaginal ultrasounds, and blood tests are often necessary. When the ultrasound indicates that the eggs are mature an injection of hCG is given. And you're sent home to have sex or an intrauterine insemination is scheduled for a day or two later. Ovulation usually occurs 24 to 36 hours after the hCG shot.
Most women will go through a maximum of three to six drug cycles. Success rates don't improve if you take the drugs longer, so if you try three or more times and don't get pregnant, your doctor may increase the dosage or suggest another kind of treatment.
SIDE EFFECTS
Many women notice abdominal tenderness, bloating, fluid retention, and weight gain. It can also be difficult to give yourself an injection. The newer, purer gonadotropins such as Gonal F, Follistim, Repronex cause fewer side effects and can be injected using smaller needles subcutaneously (under your skin).
In rare cases (less than 5 percent of the time), women develop hyperstimulated ovaries, a potentially fatal condition signaled by the sudden onset of severe pelvic pain, nausea, vomiting, and weight gain. The ovaries rapidly swell to several times their size (due to an excessive number of eggs) and may leak fluid into the abdominal cavity.
If you are in doubt about whether you've produced too many eggs or are developing hyperstimulation syndrome because your estrogen level is too high, do not give hCG to induce ovulation. It is disappointing to cancel a cycle but better to be cautious.
Also, the rate of multiple births can be around 20 percent.
Even with the best monitoring, and medical decision making, multiple pregnancies and ovarian hyperstimulation can occur so know your risks before embarking on such therapy.
SUCCESS RATES
More than 75 percent of women will ovulate. Between 20 to 60 percent will get pregnant (the wide range is due to all the other factors affecting pregnancy, from the time you have sex and your age to the speed and agility of your partner's sperm). While not much information is available on the live birth rate for fertility drugs, a few studies put the number at 70 to 85 percent.
COST
From $2,000 to $5,000 per cycle of gonadotropins (this includes the drugs, office visits, and tests).
http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/pre...lems/6189.html
• Pergonal, Humegon, Repronex (luteinizing hormone or LH and follicle stimulating hormone or FSH)
• Metrodin, Fetinex, Follistim, Gonal F (FSH)
• Perganyl (human chorionic gonadotropin or hCG)
HOW IT WORKS
Gonadotropins consist of purified follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). When injected into your body, FSH makes you start developing egg follicles. After seven to 12 days of shots, you'll get an injection of another substance called human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which tells your ovaries to release the egg or eggs it has just developed.
This drug is most often given to women with low estrogen levels who have not responded to clomiphene. Other possibilities include women with polycystic ovarian syndrome, luteal phase defects, unexplained infertility, and those about to embark on an ART procedure.
LENGTH OF TREATMENT
Treatment can begin any time you're not ovulating and continue daily for seven to 12 days each month depending on how long it takes for your eggs to mature. Since this is an injection therapy, your doctor might train you or your partner to give the shot. During the therapy, your doctor will monitor you to see when you ovulate — frequent pelvic exams, trans-vaginal ultrasounds, and blood tests are often necessary. When the ultrasound indicates that the eggs are mature an injection of hCG is given. And you're sent home to have sex or an intrauterine insemination is scheduled for a day or two later. Ovulation usually occurs 24 to 36 hours after the hCG shot.
Most women will go through a maximum of three to six drug cycles. Success rates don't improve if you take the drugs longer, so if you try three or more times and don't get pregnant, your doctor may increase the dosage or suggest another kind of treatment.
SIDE EFFECTS
Many women notice abdominal tenderness, bloating, fluid retention, and weight gain. It can also be difficult to give yourself an injection. The newer, purer gonadotropins such as Gonal F, Follistim, Repronex cause fewer side effects and can be injected using smaller needles subcutaneously (under your skin).
In rare cases (less than 5 percent of the time), women develop hyperstimulated ovaries, a potentially fatal condition signaled by the sudden onset of severe pelvic pain, nausea, vomiting, and weight gain. The ovaries rapidly swell to several times their size (due to an excessive number of eggs) and may leak fluid into the abdominal cavity.
If you are in doubt about whether you've produced too many eggs or are developing hyperstimulation syndrome because your estrogen level is too high, do not give hCG to induce ovulation. It is disappointing to cancel a cycle but better to be cautious.
Also, the rate of multiple births can be around 20 percent.
Even with the best monitoring, and medical decision making, multiple pregnancies and ovarian hyperstimulation can occur so know your risks before embarking on such therapy.
SUCCESS RATES
More than 75 percent of women will ovulate. Between 20 to 60 percent will get pregnant (the wide range is due to all the other factors affecting pregnancy, from the time you have sex and your age to the speed and agility of your partner's sperm). While not much information is available on the live birth rate for fertility drugs, a few studies put the number at 70 to 85 percent.
COST
From $2,000 to $5,000 per cycle of gonadotropins (this includes the drugs, office visits, and tests).
http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/pre...lems/6189.html
