For years women have injected themselves in an extra effort to get pregnant.
Dr. Michael Thomas at UC Health is involved in a breakthrough fertility trial, one that could make getting pregnant less painful.
Instead of using needles to inject the hormones, Dr. Thomas is using an arm patch.
The patient wears the patch on her arm and changes it when prescribed.
The active ingredient in the patch is the GnRH hormone. Dr. Thomas explains how it works, "This is another way of delivering medicine, and the medicine is sort of pushed into the skin by this little white device that sends a message to the patch to secrete itself every 90 minutes."
Wearing the patch is easier than the over 100 injections that Angela Sanchez went through to get pregnant.
The stress alone of the injections may be enough for some to try the patch. Sanchez said, "The stress level was very high. Did I do my medicine right? Is the medicine working right? Did I give myself the shot right? Very, very stressful, but its worth it."
Sanchez got pregnant and gave birth to twins.
Doctor Thomas adds the patch is only available in the clinical trial at this point, and people should not be afraid of the injections they are also safe and effective.
Doctor Thomas is still in need of particpants for the fertility patch trial. If you're interested visit the
UC Fertility website or call 513-584-4100 for more information.
