# Daily Mail: fertility drugs are virtually useless



## Greeneyed (Apr 12, 2006)

Very amusing.........

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1042762/Two-fertility-drugs-recommended-childless-couples-virtually-useless-says-study.html

" Two fertility drugs recommended for childless couples are virtually useless, says study

By Jenny Hope

Last updated at 2:31 AM on 08th August 2008

Pregnancy: Difficult for many
Two fertility treatments recommended for childless couples are of little help, says a study.

It found those using the fertility drug Clomid or a form of artificial insemination did not have a significantly higher chance of conceiving than couples not having treatment.

The money should be spent on more effective treatment such as IVF, say doctors in the British Medical Journal.

One in seven couples in the UK experience infertility, with around a third having problems where there are no obvious causes.

For the study, 580 women were divided into three groups, comparable in terms of age, body weight and their partner's sperm quality.

One group of 193 women were advised on having sex regularly, but left to try to conceive naturally. Another 194 were given clomifene citrate, including drugs such as Clomid, which is thought to correct subtle ovulatory dysfunction.

The remaining 193 were given unstimulated intrauterine insemination (IUI), which appears to enhance the chance of pregnancy by delivering sperm directly through the cervix.

After six months, there had been a total of 101 live births. There were 32 births among the 193 women trying to conceive naturally (17 per cent), compared with 26 among those on the drug (14 per cent) and 43 among those having insemination (23 per cent).

Although those receiving insemination had a higher rate of pregnancy, the experts said this was not significant enough to be solely down to the procedure.

Siladitya Bhattacharya, professor of reproductive medicine at the University of Aberdeen, who led the study, said the treatments are used to help hundreds of thousands of patients each year.

Although Clomid appeared to be less effective than natural intercourse, he said statistically it was of similar efficacy, but it still used valuable resources.

'For couples in their 30s who have been trying for more than two and a half years it would be better to move straight to IVF,' he said.

Earlier this year, Dr Simon Fishel, head of CARE Fertility, Nottingham, said childless couples were better off having a romantic meal and a bottle of wine than using ineffective approaches. "

Who writes these reports on infertility? - surely anyone reading this would see it doesn't stack up - I mean after 6 months there were 101 live births - Well that's a bleeding miracle seeing as it take 9 months to gestate!


----------

