Video: What is Clomid?

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0:00:00.000,0:00:05.000 (text on screen): Ask the Expert 0:00:05.000,0:00:07.000 Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source 0:00:07.000,0:00:12.000 What is Clomid? 0:00:12.000,0:00:17.000 Eric Flisser, M.D., Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York: Clomid, or clomiphene citrate, is a class of medication 0:00:17.000,0:00:20.000 called a selective estrogen receptor modifier, which is a very fancy name, 0:00:20.000,0:00:27.000 but essentially its purpose is to fool the body into thinking that there isn't a very high level of estrogen. 0:00:27.000,0:00:31.000 At the very beginning of the menstrual cycle, when the level is low, the brain responds to that 0:00:31.000,0:00:37.000 by encouraging the ovary to produce eggs using a hormone called the FSH, or follicle stimulating hormone. 0:00:37.000,0:00:42.000 When the brain can't sense that a follicle is growing, it continues to produce FSH hormone, 0:00:42.000,0:00:47.000 which stimulates the ovaries a little bit more than it would if it could sense that a follicle was growing. 0:00:47.000,0:00:54.000 And so Clomid is a mild stimulant that can produce one, two, or three follicles, typically, in order to get them to eventually ovulate. 0:00:54.000,0:01:00.000 It can be used in women who don't ovulate, ever. It sometimes is a way of provoking ovulation. 0:01:00.000,0:01:08.000 And in some women who do ovulate, it can be used to get additional eggs to increase the probability of a successful pregnancy at the end of that cycle. 0:01:08.000,0:01:14.000 Typically we, depending on the age of the patient, we will offer between three and six months of Clomid treatment. 0:01:14.000,0:01:18.000 If it hasn't worked after about the third or fourth month of treatment, 0:01:18.000,0:01:25.000 then the number of additional women who can expect to become pregnant in the fifth or sixth months is actually quite small. 0:01:25.000,0:01:30.000 So, for women who are older, it makes very little sense to continue giving them Clomid, 0:01:30.000,0:01:34.000 if there are additional treatments that have more success associated with them. 0:01:34.000,0:01:39.000 (text on screen): Ask the Expert 0:01:39.000,0:01:40.000 Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source