Dr. Potter, Huntington Reproductive Center

June 2007 - Posts

• Fertility Drugs and Breast Cancer

  Infertility is a risk factor for breast cancer.  The only studies that have shown a connection between fertility meds and breast cancer have compared fertility patients taking fertility medications to fertile controls.  When looking at infertile patients, there is no difference in cancer rates when takers of medications are compared with infertile patients that did not take the fertility drugs.  Unfortunately, the study comparing fertile to infertile med takers got a lot of press but it was not a valid study.  So as far as we know, there is no connection between fertility drugs themselves and cancer.  The fertility drugs used in IVF have been in continuous use in the US since the early 60s so if there was an effect, it would have been discoved by now.  So, no, fertility drugs do not cause breast cancer.  Clomid is a drug that is very similar to Tamoxifen and also does not cause breast cancer.  If you have a strong family history of breast cancer, you may consider being tested for the BRCA gene. Posted Jun 04 2007, 10:30 PM by Dr. Potter with no comments