Drugs in the treatment of female infertility. Recent advances

Involuntary infertility is an increasing problem in this era of delayed childbearing. Fortunately, many advances have been made recently in the medical and surgical treatment of infertility. This article reviews the principal aetiologies of infertility and their treatments, and focuses on the current and future uses of ovulation-inducing drugs and other infertility treatments. Proper diagnosis of anovulation and luteal phase dysfunction is discussed together with a description of conventional treatments with clomiphene and human menopausal gonadotrophins (hMG). Recent advances including the use of synthetic gonadotrophin hormone-releasing hormone (GnRH), purified human follicle stimulating hormone and a combination of GnRH and hMG are described, along with the application of the same agents for enhanced follicular recruitment for in vitro fertilisation. In addition, several promising future developments for pharmacological induction of normal ovulation are also discussed.