Fertility medication

From ArticleWorld

Fertility medication is technically defined as any medication that promotes the condition of pregnancy. In humans, however, the popularly available medications for fertility are those that are strictly confined to being used in females. All of the available medications stimulate the ovaries to mature one or more eggs inside ovarian follicles which are then naturally inseminated via sexual intercourse or artificially inseminated in a laboratory setting.

Classes of Medication

There are four primary types of fertility medication. Each type mimics a certain aspect of normal female reproductive physiology.

1. Medications exist that mimic gonadotropin releasing hormone, a brain-based hormone that sends a signal (via the pituitary gland) to the ovaries to make mature eggs. Either recombinant gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) itself is used as a medical treatment or medicines that mimic GnRH, such as Lupron®, are given that function in the same way as the natural hormone. In normal women, GnRH is made in the hypothalamus and stimulates the pituitary gland to release its own form of reproductive hormone.
2. Drugs that mimic gonadotropins are particularly effective in the treatment of infertility. These include Pergonal®, purified menotropins, recombinant follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and recombinant luteinizing hormone (LH). These drugs are either identical to, or mimic, the hormones the pituitary gland is supposed to release as part of a normal menstrual cycle. They directly stimulate the ovarian glands and often result in the creation of multiple mature ova.
3. Some of the most commonly-used types of fertility medication are called estrogen antagonists. Clomiphene citrate has been used by many women in oral form in order to raise the ovary’s normal production of estrogen and promote ovulation. Aromatase inhibitors fall into this class as well.
4. In some cases, a form of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) is used as well. HCG is also referred to as the “pregnancy hormone” because it supports all aspects of the pregnancy from its very beginning.

Ethical Issues

With these medications, as with all fertility drugs, the possibility of a multiple pregnancy—with twins, triplets or more—always exists. In many cases, doctors use fertility medications with the intention of creating multiple mature eggs. These eggs are then harvested and used along with other forms of assisted reproductive technology, particularly the techniques involved in “in-vitro” fertilization. While there are still those opposed to the use of fertility drugs on medical, ethical or religious grounds, the use of fertility medications and assisted fertilization has, for the most part, gained wide acceptance in the Western world.