What is a "human menopausal gonadotropin" or "HMG"?

What is a "human menopausal gonadotropin" or "HMG"?

Richard Paulson (Chief, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, USC) gives expert video advice on: What is "ovulation induction"?; What is "clomiphene citrate"? and more...

Human menopausal gonadotropin (abbreviated "HMG") is an injectable fertility medication and it was the second one that was developed historically. It also came on the market in the 1960s. It basically contains follicle stimulating hormone or FSH and it also contains a second hormone called luteinising hormone or LH. A combination of FSH and LH will stimulate the ovary directly to produce follicles; those are the hormones that normally do this in the body. So, here is a way of directly stimulating the ovary without depending on the body to produce those hormones. In women who have pituitary failure or a variety of more severe forms of anovulation, as long as the ovary is functional, that ovary can be made to ovulate with the use of HMG or a combination of FSH and LH. In this day and age, HMG is increasingly being replaced by the individual hormones administered by themselves or in different combinations because we now know that FSH by itself is enough, and LH can sometimes be helpful, but you don't always need to have them in a fixed combination of one-to-one like they are in HMG.