INFERTILITY FACTS NEWS AND VIEWS – Fertility Drugs and Breast Cancer Risks

October is being observed as Breast Cancer Month and as such, my Friday posts will largely surround this theme.

When I was taking fertility drugs, outside of the fact that they had such horrible side effects for me, I often wondered what other effects they were having on my body. Was I at increased risks for breast cancer or ovarian cancer, etc.

According to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, women who took the common fertility drug, clomiphene citrate (clomid) as part of their fertility treatment, did not experience increased risk for breast cancer, compared to women who did not take this drug.

Under current practices, clomiphene citrate is limited to three to six cycles with doses up to 100mg. A small group of women who took up 12 cycles however, saw an elevated risk of breast cancer 1.5 times the risks of women who did not take this drug. “This could be a result of persistent infertility rather than effects of this drug,” said Dr. Louise A. Brinton, Ph.D., M.P.H., chief of the Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Md. 

Read more, by visiting the link below:-

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140403084245.htm

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"NEW DOUBTS RAISED ABOUT COMMON FERTILITY TREATMENTS"

This speaks in particular to couples who have been diagnosed with unexplained infertility, a diagnosis given to one in eight couples.

In a recent article in Shine from Yahoo, mention was made of a recent study published in British Medical Journal with findings which states that, when there was intervention for couples with cases of  unexplained infertility, the success rate for pregnancy, was not any better than for other couples with this diagnosis who just waited and see.

From the article:-

“The study, published in the British Medical Journal, compared two common treatments with the wait-and-see approach. Couples with unexplained infertility were randomly assigned to have ovarian stimulation with the drug, clomiphene citrate (otherwise known as Clomid) or to have intrauterine insemination (IUI) without ovarian stimulation drugs. A third group was encouraged to try to get pregnant but were not given any treatment. Researchers found no significant difference in pregnancy rates among the groups. Women who had no intervention had a live birth rate of 17 percent, the group taking Clomid had a birth rate of 14 percent, and the group having IUI alone had a birth rate of 23 percent. Though the rate is higher in the IUI group and lower in the Clomid group, the differences were not statistically significant.” 

The article also went on to mention that, although Clomid  is a popular drug, used to enhance fertility, it can reduce the chances of the sperm reaching the egg and can also reduce the chances of the uterus supporting implantation of the embryo.

Please follow the link below to read more:-

http://astrology.yahoo.com/channel/health/finding-fertility-new-doubts-raised-about-common-fertility-treatments-230679/

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