--- title: Letrozole May Help Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Get Pregnant description: The drug may be a new option for women dealing with infertility canonical: https://time.com/2970524/a-breast-cancer-drug-may-help-women-become-pregnant/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-09T21:00:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:03:31.806Z article:section: Health og:title: Letrozole May Help Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Get Pregnant og:description: The drug may be a new option for women dealing with infertility og:url: https://time.com/2970524/a-breast-cancer-drug-may-help-women-become-pregnant/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Letrozole May Help Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Get Pregnant twitter:description: The drug may be a new option for women dealing with infertility twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A Breast Cancer Drug May Help Women Become Pregnant by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jul 9, 2014 9:00 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jul 9, 2014 9:00 PM UTC For women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), getting pregnant is tough. The disorder effects 5-10% of women, and interferes with their sex hormones and menstrual cycles, sometimes preventing women from ovulating altogether. Some women also develop ovarian cysts and have trouble getting pregnant. The drug clomiphine citrate has been the go-to treatment because it spurs ovulation, but it’s not perfect: it’s just 22% successful with up to six cycles of treatment; it has a high rate of multiple pregnancies; and it can cause side effects like mood swings and hot flashes. Clearly, women need another option. In a new study published in the _New England Journal of Medicine,_ the researchers looked at 750 infertile women with PCOS and randomly assigned them to either take clomiphene or a newer drug called letrozole—which is also used to treat breast cancer in a different dose—for up to five cycles. The results show that the women taking letrozole had a significantly higher rate of births at 27.5% compared to 19.1% for the women on clomiphene. The women receiving letrozole also had higher ovulation rates and fewer twin pregnancies. Birth defects for women on both medications were rare. The findings are encouraging for women looking for better options to increase fertility, but more research is needed. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2970524/a-breast-cancer-drug-may-help-women-become-pregnant/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2970524/a-breast-cancer-drug-may-help-women-become-pregnant/"},"headline":"A Breast Cancer Drug May Help Women Become Pregnant","datePublished":"2014-07-09T21:00:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:03:31.806Z","description":"The drug may be a new option for women dealing with infertility","url":"https://time.com/2970524/a-breast-cancer-drug-may-help-women-become-pregnant/","keywords":["Infertility","fertility"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2970524/a-breast-cancer-drug-may-help-women-become-pregnant/","name":"A Breast Cancer Drug May Help Women Become Pregnant"}}]}] ```