If the woman has a problem with ovulation, certain medications can help her to ovulate. She also can be given medication to increase the number of eggs released.
The medicine used most often is clomiphene which is a pill given by mouth to help women who have problems with ovulation to release an egg. A number of treatment cycles may be needed, and dosage and medication may need to be altered. If pregnancy does not occur after several treatment cycles with clomiphene, other more potent treatments may be tried. This is in the form of hormonal injection which stimulates the ovaries to mature and produce eggs. Blood tests and ultrasound often are used to monitor the effects of this treatment. This is important in order to avoid certain side-effects of this treatment such as multiple pregnancy and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. This syndrome may present if too many eggs develop at the same cycle and may cause painful swelling of the ovaries and fluid in the abdomen and lungs. In this case it may be decided to stop the treatment in order to reduce the chance of this syndrome occurring.
Most women who take ovulation-induction drugs respond to the treatment and begin to ovulate regularly. If no other problem requires treatment, more than half become pregnant within 6 cycles. If a woman still hasn’t started ovulating, she may have special investigations to find the reason.