anyone know anything about Femara/Letrozole?

[kittycat27]

hi,

i was hoping that someone would have some info on Femara/letrozole.

My FS will be putting me on it for my next cycle.

he is going to monitor my cycle to see if it works, as i did 8 cycles of clomid/serophene in 2007 without success. he said we could try naturally or have an IUI, depending on the scan results. i will then have a day 21 progesterone test. i have ovualtion problems and get AF around cd23-24.
have also had severe endo, polyps and cycst removed.

my question is wether or not femara/letrozole is stonger then clomid or serophene?
i was on 100/2 tablets a day i think when i used clomid. and will be taking 2 femara as well.
i have two frosties that i am saving until July!!
am trying to loose weight and eat well until then. plus we have a Fiji holiday planned in June and i want to have some spending money!!

hope someone out there can help with any information.
can't find much on the internet.
thanks
michelle

[briggsy's girl]

i don't know that it's "stronger" than clomid, but i do know of people that have successfully ovulated on letrazole when they've had no response to letrazole. i think it has a different hormonal action on the body and is possibly more gentle but works better. a lot of FS won't use it as yet as it due to it being used for breast cancer treatment, not for fertility issues - but i think there is a push for it to be moved across to being a standard treatment for anovulation cos they've seen good results.

if you have an FS that is prescribing it, jump at the chance to try it out

good luck!

[butterfly_warrior]

From my experience, letrozole is more able to induce ovulation than clomid, and with fewer side effects.

I only ever tried clomid once. At 50mg I failed to ovulate and had such severe anxiety attacks during that cycle that no doctor was willing to ever let me near it again.

I used letrozole on several occasions to induce ovulation in order to do a natural FET as part of my IVF. If memory serves correctly I was only taking 1 letrozole tablet, and I can't even recall which days of my cycle I took them, but I managed to ovulate every single time. I had five cycles all up - three were positive but resulted in miscarriages (not due to the letrozole, due to several other health conditions I was trying to juggle), one was negative and the final one, my last embryo failed to survive long enough to get to transfer so it never happened.

The drug is used as part of fertility treatment much more often in the US than here. It's not technically approved for use in fertility treatment here (or at least it wasn't when I was using it around 2 years ago), but from my experience it works quite well. The only side effects I had were hot flushes while taking the tablets and very mild anxiety leading up to ovulation, but that's just a unique thing my body does in response to elevating estrogen levels.

BW

[kittycat27]

thanks for that both briggsy's girl and butterfly_warrior.
i have read that it is mainly used for breast cancer. my FS gave me a good talkng to about it an how it works. but as usual i got home and could'nt repeat a single thing he had said!!!

i will be taking it next cycle. it is available at one chemist for $70. i can't even be bothered worrying about the cost's anymore.
i will be taking 2 tablets from day 2 -6.
i really hope they work, and if they do i won't hesistate in telling FS i want the IUI.
even though my husband has no health/sperm issues i feel it will give better odds!!

thanks!
keep the information coming....

[butterfly_warrior]

kittycat, the reason it is so expensive is because it's not subsidised by the PBS for the purpose you are using it for. You're paying full price there, not the subsidised price. Our FS advised us to have DH take the script to the chemist solo and play dumb if they asked questions. His dosage instructions on the script were simply "as directed"... He said if he did that, and his patients sent the male partner in to play dumb, most of them ended up with the PBS price.

If I ever get unpacked enough to locate the papers from my FS I should be able to find the letrozole info and pass it on. From memory, it basically stops the body producing estrogen (I think it's estrogen) and induces an artificial menopause while you take the tablets, when you stop the body swings into overdrive and ends up producing more. In any case, I think clomid stops the body seeing the hormone in question while letrozole stops the body producing it - which is why it tends to be more effective for those of us who don't respond to clomid.

BW