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PCOS Blog

By Nicole Galan, RN, About.com Guide to PCOS

Inducing Ovulation

Wednesday August 6, 2008

One of the most common reasons why women with PCOS seek medical care is that they want to conceive and are having difficulty. The cause for this is that women with PCOS frequently have irregular menstrual cycles from not ovulating. Before starting aggressive therapy, the physician will typically begin with prescribing medications that can induce ovulation. Besides clomid, physicians will sometimes recommend Metformin, a diabetes drug which has had some success in inducing ovulation.

While it may seem unusual to prescribe a diabetes drug to treat a female reproductive disease, let's think about what happens during PCOS. Androgens, or male hormones, are typically elevated in PCOS, leading to the various symptoms that women experience. It is currently believed that high levels of insulin actually increase ovarian androgen production. It's thought that by increasing the body's response to insulin, androgen production could actually be reduced, restoring ovulation. This is what metformin does; increase the body cells response to insulin.

For more information:
Taking Metformin
Taking Clomid

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