Both selective estrogen receptor modulators, tamoxifen and clomiphene have been used for ovulation induction for patients with anovulatory infertility. The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of tamoxifen to clomiphene on clinical outcome in intrauterine insemination (IUI) cycles.

It is a retrospective clinical study. Two hundred and seven women undergoing IUI cycles from July 2013 to July 2014 at Milann—The fertility centre, Bengaluru, India were analyzed. Tamoxifen was administered in the dose of 40 mg starting from day 2/3 of the menstrual cycle for a period of 5 days and clomiphene citrate (CC) was administered in the dose of 100 mg from day 2/3 of menstrual cycle for 5 days. Monitoring of ovulation was done by transvaginal ultrasound from day 5/6 till dominant follicle size was more than 18 mm. Highly purified human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) in the dose of 5000 IU was given. Double insemination was done at 24 and 36 hours. Luteal phase support was given in form of dydrogesterone 10 mg twice a day for 14 days. Serum beta-hCG was done after 14 days.

In our study, 76 patients recieved clomiphene citrate (37%) and 126 patients received tamoxifen (62.9%). Both the groups were comparable in terms of age, period of infertility, FSH, LH, antral follicle count and their human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) requirement (Table 1). Thirteen patients (23.6%) in CC group and 42 patients (76.4%) in tamoxifen group had positive serum beta hCG result. p-value was found to be significant (p = 0.016) (Table 2).

Tamoxifen was associated with better endometrial thickness and pregnancy rate when compared to clomiphene citrate in ovarian stimulation in IUI cycles.

Majeed A, Divyashree PS, Rao KA. Clinical Outcomes of Tamoxifen and Clomiphene Citrate in Intrauterine Insemination Cycles. Int J Infertil Fetal Med 2015;6(3):118-121.