Femara

Can someone please explain what the difference b/t Femara and Clomid are? Less side effects? Does anyone have experiences with either or both? Please share. My RE wants me to start on Clomid tomorrow but I'm very sensitive to hormones (couldn't even handle the pill) so if Femara would have less side effects and the same outcome, I may prefer to use that instead. Please let me know. Thanks!

Re: Femara

dont know the exact differences on what they do.
I was on both. I took Clomid by my gyno and did IUI's, but he NEVER monitoed me, so I dont know if I had many follicle.
I was on Femara for 3 cycles with IUI and No side effects (Clomid made me irritable and headaches) I never produced a lot of follies, just One BIG one(which is all i needed)
I produced more follies when I was on injections (Bravelle).


Redstar will have more info for you....thanks for Michelle

Re: Femara

I took both and can tell you that I had a TON less side effects on Femara then Clomid.
Although they both yielded the same result.
One extra bonus to Femara, since it isn't labeled a fertility drug, my insurance covered it unlike Clomid where I had to pay out of pocket.

Re: Femara

That's really good to know, bc if that's the case, my husband's drug plan will cover Femara (they cover everything but fertility meds, God Forbid). His med plan is awesome though. I never spend more than $5 on drugs. I'm definitely going to ask for Femara tomorrow. Thanks ladies!

Re: Femara

What clomid does, is it signals all the estrogen tissue receptors in your body. It fools the body into thinking, that it's not making enough estrogen. Your FSH hormone then starts to work harder and pump out more FSH in your system, so that the follicules grow faster. An unmedicated cycle most women only produce one dominant/mature follicule. In other words, only one grows quickly and then ovulates. If you are on clomid more than one follie, may reach maturity, which gives you a higher chance of pregnancy because there are more than one egg being released. Since clomid fools all the estrogen receptor tissues in your body, it has some negative side effects. The cervix for one, has estrogen tissues. That's how you get cervical mucus. The estrogen in your body when raised, produces the mucus. If your body is fooled to think,there is no estrogen. Then the cervical mucus can 'dry' up. The supply of mucus can cease. There are also estrogen tissue receptors in your uterus. Once again, that can decrease the growth of uterine lining (thining it out) because estrogen is not being pumped out. Estrogen helps the lining to thicken. So while clomid helps speed up ovulation it can also affect some other parts of fertility. If you do IUI, you don't need cervical mucus, because an IUI bypasses the cervix. The sperm is placed directly into the uterus...through the cervix. However, if your dh has good sperm count, I think bding before and after an IUI is a good thing to do because....IUI's alone aren't always that successful.
Now Femara works very much like clomid....except....it's what you call, a selective estrogen receptor moderator. Basically the drug only selects certain estrogen tissue to work with. It works with breast tissue, and it works with ovarian tissue (the follicules). Femara does not afffect, the cervix or the uterine tissue. Your CM will not dry up while taking femara and your uterine lining will not thin out. Femara is actually a med that was only used for post menopausal women, who had breast cancer. It helped prevent cancer growth in the breast tissue. Several years ago it was finally, passed as an infertility medication because of how well it also works with the ovaries. If your doctor is conservative, or not updated on newer meds, he may only want to deal with clomid. Clomid has been given out to women who can't conceive easily since about the 1960's....maybe even 50's.

Honestly, I took 2.5 mg of femara, and produced one mature follie, which I do on my own. However, when I took 5 mg of femara, I had two dominant follies ...and the next cycle 4 dominant follies. Some doctors skip the 2.5 mg protocol, because the 5mg, is usually more successful.

Re: Femara

I wish you were my doctor, Michelle. Thanks!

Re: Femara

I am on femara now. The 2.5 did nothing for me. I will be on the 5 next cycle. I am taking it because I have no quality fertile CM and the clomid is known to dry it out. I had no side effects at all on the femara, but the 2.5 onlyproduced one mature follile for me two cycles in a row, which like Michelle, I produce on my own as well.