The Key Role Fertility Medications Play in Your IVF Cycle

Timing is of the essence when it comes to the administration of fertility medications during every infertility treatment cycle – especially IVF. Why does timing matter so much? Your fertility doctor must have the specialization to know when your fertility medication regimens must be adjusted: increased, decreased, or stopped altogether. Look: IVF pregnancy success rates are increased when your fertility team has the talent for managing medication therapies with unrivaled precision.

Strategic Administration of Fertility Medications

Dr. John Zhang at New Hope Fertility Center has the education, training, and clinical experience to determine precisely how long his patients should remain on a certain medication therapy. As a patient who is committed to investing your time and resources into getting pregnant, you must become well-informed about fertility medications. It can’t be emphasized enough. Every fertility drug is specifically designed for strategic administration during a woman’s IVF cycle. These medications are a very important component of the IVF cycle process and are determinative of pregnancy success.

That’s not all. The Doctor’s standard of care encompasses the detailed explanation of the important role of fertility medications:

• Prepare the patient’s body for treatment
• Control the patient’s natural ovulation function

Personalized IVF Care

It is important to work with a fertility care team having the experience to accurately prescribe and regulate the fertility medications prescribed as part of your infertility treatment cycle.

• Timed Intercourse with medical assistance
• Intrauterine Insemination (IUI)
• Conventional IVF
• Mini-IVF™
• Natural IVF

Common IVF Fertility Medications

Fertility medications commonly used during IVF cycles:

• Lupron® is the trade name for an injectable leuprolide acetate used to prevent premature ovulation. Lupron® gives the patient’s body the opportunity to produce a higher number of quality eggs during the IVF cycle. Lupron® essentially switches off the pituitary gland in terms of its ability to produce follicle stimulating hormones and luteinizing hormones. Brand name Ganirelix may be used instead.
• Gonadotropins are follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) injections. Brand names including Bravelle®, Follistim®, Menopur®, and Gonal-F®, stimulate the follicles that contain the eggs during the stimulation phase of the IVF cycle.
• Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) are injections used during ovarian stimulation to trigger the maturation of the eggs and prepare them for retrieval. These hCG injections simulate the effects that an increase in luteinizing hormone would have in a woman going through natural ovulation. Lupron can also be used with certain stimulation protocols.
• Progesterone thickens a woman’s uterine lining to sustain a pregnancy when embryo implantation occurs. During IVF, a woman’s body generally does not produce enough progesterone to create a sufficiently thick uterine lining to support early embryo implantation. In this case, progesterone in various forms can be administered to augment the body’s natural supply until the placenta is able to produce adequate amounts.

Timed Intercourse and Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) Fertility Medications

When a couple is experiencing unexplained infertility despite normal reproductive health, medically supervised timed intercourse or IUI are usually recommended to increase the chances of pregnancy. IUI is the best and lowest cost approach to becoming pregnant when timed intercourse at home fails.

Clomid (Clomiphene Citrate) vs. Femara (Letrozole)

The fertility drug clomiphene citrate – brand named Clomid – is an oral medication used to stimulate a woman’s monthly egg production and increase her chances of pregnancy. Ovulation of multiple eggs is timed with the insemination of a concentrated amount of sperm into the uterus via a woman’s cervix – similar to a Pap smear.

A 2015 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine tested and compared two common fertility drugs stimulating multiple egg production – Clomid v. Femara. Clomid achieved a birth rate of 23 percent, while Femara (generic Letrozole – an aromatase inhibitor) only 18 percent. The study found that Letrozole offered no advantages over Clomid treatment and increased the chance of multiple pregnancy by up to four times. The researchers concluded that Clomid is the most effective medication for stimulating ovaries and increasing the chances of a healthy pregnancy for couples with unexplained infertility.

IVF Fertility Medication Administration Expertise

It is important to work with a fertility doctor having the experience required to design a customized IVF treatment plan meeting your personal and medical needs. To schedule your initial consultation with Dr. John Zhang at New Hope Fertility NYC – or – call 917.525.5496.