Whether you're into advanced birthing years, are taking medication that can make pregnancy less likely, or even were just born with low fertility, if you want to have a child (or multiple children), chances are good that you'll rely on a fertility drug at one point or another. But while your doctor may equate most fertility medications with the others, there are some subtle differences in how the drugs work and how they may affect your body. So if you're curious about what you have to look forward to, here are details on three of the more common forms of fertility medication that you should know.

Clomiphene

This medication goes by a couple of different names – Clomid, Serophene – but it is the same basic formula, with the same basic process it looks to induce in your body. Usually used in cases where women are not ovulating properly (or ovulating at all, a condition called anovulation), clomiphene makes your brain release a few crucial hormones that stimulate egg production (follicle-stimulating hormone [FSH], luteinizing hormone, and gonadotropin-releasing hormone [GnRH]). If your doctor decides clomiphene is best for you, the side effects you can look forward to are blessedly mild: headaches, nausea, bloating, mood swings, and hot flashes – symptoms similar to those you'll be experiencing for the next nine months, should the drug work as intended.

Gonadotropins

Instead of stimulating your brain to egg the fertility process on (so to speak), gonadotropins skip the brain entirely and go straight to your eggs, stimulating your ovaries to produce an egg (or multiple eggs as the case may often be). Your doctor may decide to use this if you don't respond well to clomiphene and if you don't make enough of the above-mentioned hormones to ovulate. Gonadotropins require frequent monitoring by a doctor, and they require you to have sex within a day and a half of the hormone shot; side effects generally include tender breasts, bloating, and mood swings (which tend to be the most consistent side effects of hormonal treatment, due to the sudden influx of hormones into the body).

Hormone Injections

Rather than combining a number of hormones into a single drug, hormone injections tend to take a more "a la carte" approach, injecting the hormones you lack while dealing a softer hand with those you produce naturally. Hormones in this method tend to include FSH, GnRH (along with GnRH agonists and antagonists), and human chorionic gonadotropin. Side effects of this treatment include all other side effects noted above, along with tenderness at injection sites.

For more information, contact an obgyn at a medical clinic such as Women's Care Inc.