I only had to take two medications to conceive my sweet boy, Femara and Novarel.
Femara: This is a supraovulation drug also known as Letrozole. This drug is very similar to the drug, Clomid. It is different in that Femara does not thin the uterine lining like Clomid sometimes can. This drug is actually used to treat early breast cancer and has not been FDA approved to treat infertility. This drug is useful towards infertility as it suppresses estrogen production, when this happens the pituitary gland is stimulated to produce more of the follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) needed to stimulate the ovaries. I took this on CD 3-7 of my cycle, which was followed by an u/s to check follicle production. I don't have a lot of information at this time, but I did read that there are studies that are being done with Femara being a treatment option for endo. It does make sense as endo thrives and grows from estrogen and femara suppresses estrogen production. Definitely something to look in to. This medicine is very expensive.. close to or over $100/bottle which consists of 5 pills.
Side effects: I experienced intense headaches, hot flashes, and nausea while on femara. At times the headaches were debilitating, especially during ovulation. I also experienced a lot of ovary pain and bloating from growing follicles.. which was a good thing! Grow follies grow!
Novarel: this medication is an injectable form of the human chorionic gonadatropin (HCG) hormone. t is also called a trigger shot. This stimulates the release of an egg during ovulation. I was injected with this after an u/s confirmed enough mature follicles.
Side effects: I experienced a lot of pregnancy symptoms after being injected with Novarel.. which makes sense as it is the pregnancy hormone. I also experienced pain and bruising around the injection site.. usually in the hip/butt area. The thing with the Novarel is that not only does it produce pregnancy symptoms.. which are only a tease to a woman TTC in her 2WW (2 week wait, the time after ovulation to the next expected menstrual period) but one must not take a home pregnancy test until at least 10-11 days after the shot.. or false results might occur. The cycle I conceived my sweet boy, I actually tested at 11 days past the trigger and got a positive, and it was a positive made by my body.. not the trigger :)
Crinone: this medication is a progesterone gel. This was inserted vaginally every night from the time I was 4 weeks pregnant up until I was 14 weeks. I took this because I have a progesterone deficiency. One of the major hormones needed to support a pregnancy is progesterone, without it a pregnancy cannot be sustained. This medicine is very expensive compared to the other progesterone suppositories.
Side effects: I am going to be honest.. I HATED this medicine! I hated the way it looked and I hated the way it made me feel. It made my morning sickness or all day sickness as I like to call it, 100x worse. This medication caused severe nausea and extreme fatigue. I wouldn't change it for a thing though because this is what helped support my sweet boy. Without it, he may not be here today. While this is the the one thing I am most definitely not looking forward to if we become pregnant again, I would do it 100 times if I had to.
**The side effects for the meds listed are my own personal side effects, there can be many more or less side effects to what is listed.**
For more information of Femara, Novarel, and Crinone:
http://www.ivf1.com/letrozole-femara-infertility/
http://www.crinoneusa.com/patients/index.html
http://www.drugs.com/mtm/ovidrel-injectable.html
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