After all the blood work, they finally decided that it’s your hormones causing all the difficulties. Hormone therapy may be very effective in treating infertility but there are some possible risks – so ensure that you are educated!

You could not need to take actual hormones, but rather have medication to regulate your hormones.

These are for the ladies:

· Bromocriptine – Prolactin prevents ovulation and promotes breast milk production, so bromocriptine controls prolactin to help you ovulate. Side effects include headaches, nausea, low blood pressure and maybe even dizziness as well.

· Clomiphene – Clomiphene encourages the pituitary gland to make FSH and LH which stimulate the ovaries to release egg cells. It is rather inexpensive and fairly successful, especially if you have PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) or irregular periods, although you may experience headaches, tender breasts, nausea and insomnia while you’re on it.

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

If you (presuming you’re the woman) aren’t producing eggs then some infertility hormones can make life easier.

· Human Menopausal Gonadotropin (hMG) – This contains FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) and LH (luteinizing hormone) which are obtained from the urine of women who have stopped menstruating and is usually prescribed if you have trouble with your pituitary gland and the other drugs haven’t worked. Regrettably they are not always successful and are rather expensive as additional ultrasound scans are necessary to confirm if the drug is working. Your odds of miscarriage or enlarged ovaries are bigger, as are your chances of multiple or premature births which have dangers of their own.

· Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) – HCG assists in stimulating ovulation and treats endometriosis by functioning in partnership with hMG. Side effects include increased occurrence of cysts on the ovaries, increased chance of enlarged ovaries and multiple births.

· Urofollitropin (FSH) – Given if clomiphene is ineffective in stimulating ovulation in women with PCOS.

· Luteinizing Hormone – Releasing Hormone (LH-RH) – Endometriosis and Pituitary gland abnormalities can be treated through the use of LH-RH. It is quite tricky to administer and it increases the risk of multiple births and infections.

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

· Progesterone – Helps the uterus to produce a lining for the fertilized egg to implant.

For the guys:

Overall, infertility hormones are not as effective for men as they are for women; but they may be recommended in some cases. 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 similar to those prescribed for women.

· Testosterone – Mimics natural testosterone to aid efficient reproductive performance.

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

· Bromocriptine – Men can also have too much prolactin and this will stop testosterone from being produced and cause sperm to be malformed. This could be treated with bromocriptine, be sure to check out the risks first! Hallucinations are not fun…

· hCG & FSH – Promotes healthy sperm formation. These are of the most helpful infertility hormones that can be prescribed for men.

Risks

Know what to anticipate from the medication you are taking to avoid any undesirable interactions. A possible hitch with infertility hormones is the high likelihood of multiple pregnancies. That may not seem like such a negative thing to you now. Having multiples brings about far more difficulties than single pregnancies including an elevated chance of premature birth and the complications that follow.

Hopefully this has given you some help in deciding whether you are going to go for the infertility hormones or not. Best of luck to you!

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