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American Morning
Could Viagra be Used to Treat Something Other Than Impotence?
Aired January 02, 2004 - 07:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Could Viagra be used to treat something other than impotence? Three years ago, we reported on a doctor who prescribed the drug to four women who hoped to become pregnant. Most of them did. So, then, has this use of Viagra caught on?
Elizabeth Cohen examines that question this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA, USED VIAGRA AS INFERTILITY TREATMENT: Catch! Put your hands up.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alex owes her life to Viagra, her parents say. No, her father didn't take it, her mother did, after conventional fertility treatments failed.
MELISSA: They didn't have any answers on how to help me. There was no, there was nothing that they could do for the problem that I was having.
COHEN: The problem? Not enough blood was flowing to Melissa's uterus to support a pregnancy. So this doctor got the idea if Viagra gets blood flowing to a man's genitals, why not to a woman's uterus? The doctor gave Melissa vaginal Viagra suppositories. Several days later...
MELISSA: He called and he said Melissa, are you ready to be a mother?
COHEN: And now they await their second Viagra baby. Dr. Geoffrey Sher says he has another 400 women like Melissa, women who failed in vitro fertilization, often several times, and then they got pregnant on Viagra with no harm to mother or baby.
So give this apparent success, is the medical community embracing Viagra for infertility?
Not exactly. Since the news about vaginal Viagra broke three years ago, other doctors started trying it. Dr. Sher claims a 30 percent success rate. But others have had much more modest success. Several of the many doctors we talked to have had no success at all.
DR. ANDREW TOLEDO, INFERTILITY SPECIALIST: We probably had somewhere between about 60 to 90 patients who attempted on this product. And we don't have any pregnancies.
COHEN: He says he can't figure out why Dr. Sher did so much better. Maybe his suppositories were different. Maybe it has to do with his particular patients. Only 10 percent of infertile women at the most could be helped by Viagra.
DR. GEOFFREY SHER, SHER INSTITUTES FOR REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE: There's no doubt that it works. There's also no doubt that it doesn't work in everyone.
COHEN: Melissa says she's living proof that Viagra works.
MELISSA: For me, it worked great. I mean I can prove that with the two children that I have.
COHEN (on camera): But many are left wondering about the mystery of Viagra for infertility, if it really works and why it seems to work especially well for Dr. Sher and his patients.
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: And Dr. Sher says he was not surprised that pregnancies resulted after the women used the Viagra. But he stresses only a small percentage of women with infertility have this problem, which could be helped with the drug Viagra.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Impotence?>
Aired January 2, 2004 - 07:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Could Viagra be used to treat something other than impotence? Three years ago, we reported on a doctor who prescribed the drug to four women who hoped to become pregnant. Most of them did. So, then, has this use of Viagra caught on?
Elizabeth Cohen examines that question this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA, USED VIAGRA AS INFERTILITY TREATMENT: Catch! Put your hands up.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alex owes her life to Viagra, her parents say. No, her father didn't take it, her mother did, after conventional fertility treatments failed.
MELISSA: They didn't have any answers on how to help me. There was no, there was nothing that they could do for the problem that I was having.
COHEN: The problem? Not enough blood was flowing to Melissa's uterus to support a pregnancy. So this doctor got the idea if Viagra gets blood flowing to a man's genitals, why not to a woman's uterus? The doctor gave Melissa vaginal Viagra suppositories. Several days later...
MELISSA: He called and he said Melissa, are you ready to be a mother?
COHEN: And now they await their second Viagra baby. Dr. Geoffrey Sher says he has another 400 women like Melissa, women who failed in vitro fertilization, often several times, and then they got pregnant on Viagra with no harm to mother or baby.
So give this apparent success, is the medical community embracing Viagra for infertility?
Not exactly. Since the news about vaginal Viagra broke three years ago, other doctors started trying it. Dr. Sher claims a 30 percent success rate. But others have had much more modest success. Several of the many doctors we talked to have had no success at all.
DR. ANDREW TOLEDO, INFERTILITY SPECIALIST: We probably had somewhere between about 60 to 90 patients who attempted on this product. And we don't have any pregnancies.
COHEN: He says he can't figure out why Dr. Sher did so much better. Maybe his suppositories were different. Maybe it has to do with his particular patients. Only 10 percent of infertile women at the most could be helped by Viagra.
DR. GEOFFREY SHER, SHER INSTITUTES FOR REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE: There's no doubt that it works. There's also no doubt that it doesn't work in everyone.
COHEN: Melissa says she's living proof that Viagra works.
MELISSA: For me, it worked great. I mean I can prove that with the two children that I have.
COHEN (on camera): But many are left wondering about the mystery of Viagra for infertility, if it really works and why it seems to work especially well for Dr. Sher and his patients.
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: And Dr. Sher says he was not surprised that pregnancies resulted after the women used the Viagra. But he stresses only a small percentage of women with infertility have this problem, which could be helped with the drug Viagra.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Impotence?>
