by Elizabeth Applebeck

Created on: April 24, 2009

Women dealing with infertility and the difficulties of becoming pregnant can be a devastating experience for many women who are still in their child-bearing years. Infertility can start anywhere in the female reproductive system causing her to become infertile, for example, the ovaries is one place that infertility may take place while the fallopian tubes is another. Anything can happen within the female reproductive system that would cause a child-bearing woman to be infertile, such as tumors and cysts to name a couple. Some women may not even have anything wrong with their reproductive organs to be infertile, but may have low levels of the hormone progesterone which works right along with the other hormone estrogen. Progesterone helps the female body prepare for conception, pregnancy and helps regulate the menstrual cycle. The main role of progesterone is maintaining pregnancy. When a women becomes infertile due to not having enough of the hormone progesterone she may be prescribed by her doctor an over the counter fertility drug to help stimulate her ovaries to release eggs for conception.

Clomiphene is a type of fertility drug that is taken as a pill rather than a shot and is one drug that is used most often. Brand names of this drug are Clomid, Milophene, and Serophene. This drug should be taken at the end of each menstrual cycle once a month and should never be overdosed or taken for more than twelve months at a time. Another type of infertility drug is called gonadotropins and is more costly than the pill and is harder to use than Clomiphene.

Fertility drugs work when a women who is trying to become pregnant isn't releasing any eggs from her ovaries by causing these ovaries to release mature eggs once a month. The release of an egg is called ovulation and when the egg is penetrated by a sperm this becomes conception and eventually turns into a pregnancy.

When taking fertility drugs as with any other type of drug there will be side effects. Some of these side effects with Clomiphene or any other fertility related drug may be breast tenderness, mood swings, dizziness, headaches, nausea, and blurred vision. Clompihene, in general, has been known in the past to cause ovarian cysts, however, there are no known cases of this occurring. Although the cysts are not cancerous, they can still be quite painful and usually go away within 1-2 months after quitting the drug, Clomiphene.

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