A new Danish study found some small increase in risk of uterine cancer in those using fertility drugs for long term.
How big is the risk exactly?
If I’m taking fertility drugs, should I be worried?
Which drugs exactly are studied?
What does all this mean?
According to this research paper published in December 2009 in American Journal of Epidemiology,:
1) Women who used follicle-stimulating hormone and human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) for more than 10 years have a higher risk of uterine cancer.
2) Increase in risk of women taking six or more cycles of clomiphene, an established treatment for women not ovulating normally.
3) Increase in risk of women injected with six or more cycles of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), when clomiphene don’t work.
What does this study findings mean?
Do not be alarmed. There is NO big risk in using fertility drugs of developing uterine cancer.
When we are talking about the absolute risk of developing uterine cancer from using fertility drugs, it is very very small. So unless you’ve been using fertility drugs, specifically Clomiphene (trade name: Clomid, Serophene, Milophene etc), for at least 10 years, you shouldn’t be worried about this findings.
But the use of gonadotropins (follicle-stimulating hormone and human menopausal gonadotropin) does increased uterine cancer risk, the risk was primarily observed after 10 years of follow-up.
Again this is a small risk. Discuss with your doctor if you are on gonadotropins or clomiphene for the long term. Most of the time, the benefit outweigh the risks.
