For nearly every type of medical condition, there are a variety of drugs that a doctor can recommend to address the symptoms. When you’ve been unable to conceive, a fertility specialist is likely to prescribe you a medication to help increase your chances of becoming pregnant.
Letrozole is a common drug used right from the start of a fertility treatment journey. It’s so common because it’s one of the best drugs used to help fight infertility and increase the chance of conception. Some studies show that it’s the best one on the market. But what is it exactly? And how does it compare to others? That’s what we’re here to help you learn.
Read on to learn about how letrozole helps increase fertility and how it compares to other infertility treatment options, such as clomiphene. You’ll also learn about combining letrozole with other infertility treatments to boost efficacy.
What is letrozole?
Letrozole is the generic name for Femara, and it’s a medicine that can be used for multiple purposes. Even though it’s often recommended for infertility treatment, its main purpose is to help treat breast cancer.
It’s an oral drug that’s primarily used as a treatment for early breast cancer, specifically hormone-dependent breast cancer. It’s usually prescribed to women who have gone through menopause and have already received other cancer treatments, such as radiation. The drug reduces the level of estrogen in the female’s body, which is a sex hormone that can stimulate the growth of some breast cancers.
Letrozole is also one of the first treatment options used for people struggling with infertility. It’s prescribed as part of ovarian stimulation. In a similar way that the medication lowers estrogen to reduce breast cancer cell growth, the reduced estrogen can benefit females with infertility as well.
The estrogen is reduced by blocking the aromatase inhibitor enzyme that helps create it. The decrease in estrogen can help the brain release other hormones that are needed for conception. One of the hormones it can trigger is the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). FSH helps to increase the number of ovulated eggs from the fallopian tube. Its purpose is to help the immature eggs grow.
Letrozole versus clomiphene
Even though letrozole is a common drug used for infertility, it’s not the only option for ovarian stimulation. Your doctor may also recommend clomiphene citrate, which is the generic name for Clomid, another type of oral medication used to stimulate ovulation. They will determine which works best for you based on your medical history.
Clomiphene works similarly to letrozole as it also reduces the estrogen in the body to stimulate other hormones. But while letrozole blocks the aromatase inhibitor enzyme, clomiphene citrate blocks the brain’s estrogen receptor.
Clomiphene has been around much longer than letrozole, first making its appearance on the market back in 1967. Letrozole was approved by the FDA several decades later in 1998.
Overall, the efficacy of letrozole and clomiphene is relatively similar, but letrozole tends to have fewer side effects. For instance, clomiphene can cause hot flashes and constipation.
Letrozole is also preferred for females with infertility that stems from PCOS. In fact, a study showed a successful pregnancy rate of about 28% with letrozole in females with PCOS, as opposed to a 19% pregnancy rate with clomiphene.
Pregnancies that stem from ovarian stimulation usually occur in the first three months, regardless of which medication is prescribed.
Combining letrozole with other infertility treatments
When you start your fertility journey, you may begin with ovarian stimulation, OS, using letrozole, unless your doctor believes that your body will respond better to clomiphene citrate. The efficacy of OS can be boosted by combining it with other treatment options.
To help infertility, your fertility specialist may recommend combining letrozole with intrauterine insemination, or IUI. This procedure involves sperm being implanted into the uterus to increase the number of healthy sperm cells that could potentially fertilize an egg. When OS and IUI are used at the same time, they have an efficacy rate of up to 20%.
Another common infertility treatment that can be partnered up with OS and/or IUI is a trigger shot of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). This is a hormone that assists in the release of multiple mature eggs that are waiting in your ovaries. A study showed that when an HCG is administered in conjunction with IUI, there’s a pregnancy rate of about 18.2%.
Fertility Cloud can prescribe you letrozole to treat your infertility
Infertility is already difficult to deal with, and it can be even more frustrating when you’re worried about how successful a certain treatment option will be in helping to boost the possibility of conception. The good news is that letrozole is so widely recommended for infertility because it has a high efficacy level.
If you’d like to look into letrozole for infertility, contact our team by phone today for more information or book an initial appointment online with a fertility specialist.