How To Get Pregnant With Twins Using Fertility Drugs

Fertility Drugs that Increase the Chance of Birthing Twins

The popularity of women using fertility drugs to get pregnant has significantly increased over the last several years. For many women struggling with fertility problems, fertility drugs offer a substantial boost in the chances of couples getting pregnant by promoting ovulation. Another effect these fertility drugs are creating is the higher chance of women having multiple births. At present, about one in thirty-two births are twin births. This rate has gone up sixty-five percent since 1980, and it is more than double the rate among women who conceive without medical assistance, which is one in eighty-nine. With these staggering statistics, it is easy to understand the effect these drugs are having on multiple births. Because of the recent trend in desire to have twins, more women are turning to fertility drugs to improve their chance of multiple births. If you are wanting to know how to get pregnant with twins using fertility drugs, then the following are the three most popular medications available.

Many women with fertility problems are prescribed Clomiphene:

Brand names are Clomid and Serophene. Clomiphene works by stimulating hormones in your brain to get an egg, or several eggs ready for release from your ovaries each month. About ten percent of women who take the fertility drug Clomid experience multiple births, with most of those births resulting in twins.

Medical preparations of naturally occurring hormones Gonadotropins:

Brand names are Pergonal, Repronex, Fertinex, Follistim, Novarel, Ovidrel, Gonal F, Pregnyl, Profasi, as well as Menogon and Puregon – which are only prescribed in Europe.  Gonadotropins work by stimulating your ovaries directly to produce an egg, or possibly several eggs, which is all some women need to get pregnant.  It is estimated that ten to forty percent of women who take Gonadotropins will experience multiple births, making the medication a more likely chance at becoming pregnant with twins than taking Clomiphene.

Women who suffer from ovulation problems Bromocriptine:

Brand name is Parlodel. Bromocriptne is prescribed to women who suffer from ovulation problems caused by a Pituitary Adenoma. Pituitary Adenoma is a benign tumor in your Pituitary Gland – located in your brain, right behind the back of your nose – that secretes an excess of prolactin, which reduces your estrogen levels and inhibits ovulation. Once your estrogen levels are back to a normal range, you should begin to menstruate and ovulate again. About five to fifteen percent of women taking this fertility medication will undergo multiple births.

Drastic rise in the prescription of fertility medications

Those are the three most popular drugs used by women who have experienced a pregnancy with twins. Though these fertility drugs have been used safely and successfully for more than thirty years, like many other fertility solutions, such as in vitro fertilization, these fertility medications will increase your chance of multiple births. Due to the trend of women preferring a pregnancy resulting in twins, there has been a drastic rise in the prescription and consumption of these medications. Like any prescribed drug, these fertility solutions must be taken with caution, because the more babies that are carried in the womb, the greater the risk for complications such as miscarriage and premature labor become.  Please consult with your doctor to find out if these medications are right for you.

Infertility and Fertility Treatment

Infertility is defined as a male’s or female’s inability or reduced biological ability to contribute to the conception of a child.  More commonly, it is defined as the inability to become pregnant after 12 months of intercourse without birth control.  Infertility may also refer to a woman’s inability to carry a pregnancy to full term.

Infertility affects about 1 in every of couples in their reproductive age.  In the US, approx. 7% of married couples in which the woman was of reproductive age (2.1 million) reported they were not able to get pregnant after trying for one year (2002 National Survey of Family Growth).

In some cases, both the man and woman may be sub-fertile.  In other cases, each partner is each fertile but the couple cannot conceive together without assistance.  In approx. 1/3rd of the cases, the male is infertile, in 1/3rd the female is infertile, and in 1/3rd, it can be either one of them, or the cause is unknown.  In about 15% of cases, investigation will show no abnormalities which can be detected by current methods.

Egg quality is also of critical importance, especially for women of advanced maternal age.  Or it may be a question of the egg not being released at the optimum time for fertilization, or the sperm not being able to reach the egg, or fertilization may fail to occur.

If you are trying to get pregnant, and are considering a fertility treatment, don’t opt immediately for the most advanced and expensive Fertility Treatments, such as IVF, thinking you’ll get pregnant faster.

You have a number of Fertility Treatments available, which include:  fertility drugs, surgery, IVF, GIFT, ZIFT, donor eggs, and surrogacy.  In 85% to 95% of cases, Infertility can be treated with conventional Fertility Treatments, such as drug treatment.  These solutions are more affordable and less invasive than some of the other options.

Here’s an overview of your Fertility Treatment options, ranked from the least to the most invasive:

Fertility drugs:  These drugs can help get a female’s or males reproductive system and hormones in balance.

Artificial Insemination:  Sometimes the male’s sperm needs help getting to the female’s egg.  Placing a dose of sperm in your uterus at the proper time will improve one’s chances of getting pregnant.

Surgery:  Some women have blocked fallopian tubes, endometriosis, fibroids, or ovarian cysts, or genetic defects.  A minor surgery, performed with a laparoscope (a fiber-thin tube) can help diagnose the problem.  However, more extensive surgery may be required.

Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART):  ART can involve the hi-tech In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) or Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), or in rarer cases, GIFT or ZIFT.  In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is a major treatment in infertility when other methods of ART have failed.  It involves surgically removing eggs (ova) from a woman’s ovaries, fertilizing them with sperm in the laboratory, and returning them to the woman’s body.  Both Zygote Intrafallopian Transfer and Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer are ART procedures, which involve removing the woman’s eggs, mixing them with the male’s sperm , and implanting them in the woman’s Fallopian tubes.  With ZIFT, fertilization takes place outside the body, and with GIFT, fertilization takes place inside the body.  Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) is a procedure in which a single sperm (especially donor sperm) is injected directly into an egg.

Egg Donation:  Occasionally, a woman may require to use a egg donor, depending on her age, and egg quality.

You can find helpful information about infertility and everything you need to know about fertility treatment at Aha! Baby.