14 DAY TRIAL // Women who suffer from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) usually undergo a type of fertility treatment that requires a number of steps to complete. The first of these steps may in fact lower their chances of conceiving a baby, according to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Administering the hormone progestin is usually part of the first step in fertility treatments. The NIH group, which included experts from Penn State, found that women who took the chemical were in fact four times less likely to conceive than before they began the therapy.
“Progestin has been used as a first step of fertility treatment to shed the uterine lining, which is often thick and dysfunctional. Before women receive drugs to stimulate egg release, the progestin was given to start a new uterine lining,” the researchers say.
However, it was found that only 5 percent of women who took the hormone gave birth. These individuals were selected from a group that came to seek fertility assistance. Some 20 percent of those who did not take progestin did get pregnant and gave birth successfully.