Common Fertility Treatments Ineffective

Couples finding it difficult to get pregnant may be better off having a romantic night in and regular sex rather than expensive fertility treatments after a new study found that two commonly used fertility treatments are of “no benefit”.

The Scottish study found that the chances of becoming pregnant using the fertility drug Clomid or artificial insemination is no higher than trying to conceive naturally.

The 6-month study involved 580 women who had all experienced unexplained fertility problems for more than 2 years. The women were split into 3 groups – one group were encouraged to conceive naturally; the second group were given the fertility drug clomid, which stimulates the ovaries; the third group were given artificial insemination, which involves inserting sperm directly into the woman’s uterus at the time of ovulation. Of all the women, 101 women became pregnant.

• 17% conceived naturally
• 14% became pregnant using clomid
• 23% became pregnant using artificial insemination

The researchers said that although there were more pregnancies in the group using artificial insemination, the difference was not significant enough.

The findings were published in the British Medical Journal

Posted Thursday 14th August 2008