Doctors in Scotland tested ovulation stimulating drug and artificial insemination against completely untreated couples who had no clear reasons of infertility.

Researchers found minute difference in the number of couples who had babies, among the three groups. The study was published Friday in the British Medical Journal.

”These treatments are a leap of faith,” said Dr. Siladitya Bhattacharya, the study’s lead author. ”None of the treatments studied had shown any significant benefit over without treatment at all.”

Infertility affects one out of seven couples. Doctors frequently try fertility pills or artificial insemination prior to moving on to more complex and expensive methods such as in-vitro fertilization. Bhattacharya said that “he and the five study centers no longer recommend the two tested treatments for unexplained infertility problems.”

First group consisted of the 580 couples in the study were simply advised to have regular sex. Second group got clomifene citrate, which stimulates the process of ovulation. For the third group, artificial insemination is performed, injecting sperm into the uterus with the help of syringe.
Women who were pregnant after six months were then monitored till the time of delivery.

In the untreated group who were only recommended regular sex, 32 couples had babies. That compares to 26 babies for the women who took fertility pills and 43 for those who had artificial insemination. Experts said the differences are statistically negligible.

”It’s not in the realm that you would expect it to be if these interventions were really performing,” said Allan Pacey, of the University of Sheffield and secretary of the British Fertility Society.

Still, Pacey said that “artificial insemination was still useful in certain conditions, such as when donor sperm is used.”

Fertility pills like clomifene have long been shown to stimulate ovulation with side effects include nausea, headaches, and hot flashes. These fertility drugs also increases the chance of having twins.

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