Fertility Treatments ((Ovulation induction)

Digital Ovulation induction is a very common term that you may encounter in your journey through fertility treatments. Basically, this term refers to the use of medications to stimulate your body to produce one or more eggs. Ovulation induction may be necessary in women who do not ovulate consistently, but want to have a child. There are many reasons why women do not ovulate regularly - polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), excessive exercise, and hyperprolactinemia are just a few examples. One important prerequisite for a woman to participate in ovulation induction is that she must have good quality eggs remaining in her ovaries. This procedure is of no use to women who have ovarian failure or eggs of poor quality.

Ovulation induction can be as simple as taking a daily pill or more complicated, like injecting fertility medications and seeing your specialist daily for necessary monitoring. The simplest form of ovulation induction involves taking clomiphene. Clomiphene is a small tablet that must be taken on specified days of the cycle. It is relatively inexpensive and has very few side effects. If taken correctly, clomiphene can be very effective in inducing ovulation. As many as 50-80% of women who take clomiphene will ovulate, however only about half of these will achieve a pregnancy.

In some cases, a woman may need a little extra help in getting her body to produce eggs. Remember, not everyone is the same and therefore not every woman will necessarily respond to clomiphene. More potent medications, known as the gonadotropins, are available for more intensive ovulation induction. Gonadotropins are injectable medications that are made up of a combination of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) or just FSH alone. These hormones can be very helpful in getting a woman to produce and release her eggs. Because these medications are so potent, you will be required to visit your specialist's office frequently to get appropriate monitoring and guidance. This can include bloodwork, ultrasounds, or just verbal counseling in regards to dosing and injection techniques. Close contact with your healthcare team will ensure that you get the best outcome from the treatment and also help prevent potential side effects from the therapy.

For some women, ovulation induction with medications will not be enough to achieve pregnancy. Even if the medications work, there may be other reasons that prevent the couple from becoming pregnant - for example, a low sperm count. For couples where ovulation induction is unsuccessful in producing a pregnancy, one of many ART procedures may be advised as the next path to parenthood.

For the ART procedures, injectable gonadotropin medications are also used to stimulate the woman's ovaries to produce multiple eggs. However, when medications are used in preparation for an ART procedure, the process is no longer called ovulation induction, but rather controlled ovarian hyperstimulation or COH. The only difference between the 2 procedures is that in COH, the woman is never actually "allowed" to ovulate - rather, her eggs are retrieved from the ovaries immediately prior to the anticipated time of ovulation (in the case of IVF) and fertilized outside of the body, in a laboratory. In ovulation induction, however, ovulation is desirable since a natural pregnancy is being attempted. COH requires extensive monitoring and follow-up since it involves the use of injectable gonadotropins.

The success of ovulation induction in achieving a pregnancy is highly variable. It depends on your diagnosis, age, the medication being used, and numerous other factors. Therefore, it is important that you speak with your specialist regarding your anticipated rate of success with a chosen treatment.