The fertility drug Serophene, a trade name for Clomid, has been linked with several types of birth defects.

Clomiphene (sold as Clomid and Serophene) is an oral fertility treatment prescribed for the last 30 years to stimulate ovulation in women who are having difficulties getting pregnant.

However, Serophene has been associated with a number of birth defects and abnormalities in both clinical trials and post-marketing surveillance for Serophene side effects.

While the chance of clomiphene birth defects are relatively low when compared to other drugs, it has been suggested that the current Serophene and Clomid drug labels and warnings included in the product inserts do not adequately inform patients and prescribers about possible Serophene birth defect side effects.

According to some Serophene side effects reports, potential birth defects include:

• Congenital heart lesions
• Down syndrome
• Club foot
• Congenital gut lesions
• Hypospadias
• Microcephaly
• Harelip and cleft palate
• Congenital hip
• Hemangioma
• Undescended testicles
• Polydactyly
• Conjoined twins and teratomatous malformation
• Patent ductus arteriosus
• Amaurosis
• Arteriovenous fistula
• Inguinal hernia
• Umbilical hernia
• Syndactyly
• Pectus excavatum
• Myopathy
• Dermoid cyst of scalp
• Omphalocele
• Spina bifida occulta
• Ichthyosis
• Persistent lingual frenulum

Each of these Serophene birth defects observed during clomiphene clinical trials were reported of a rate of about 1 percent.

Results of the 1997-2005 Clomid Birth Defects Study

The researchers involved in the various clomiphene birth defects studies found that women whose children had birth defects stated they used Serophene or Clomid more often than mothers of children who did not exhibit these birth defects.

Additionally, the use of Serophene was also linked, in smaller numbers, with birth defects like Dandy-Walker malformation, muscular ventricular septal defect, and cloacal extrophy.

According to medical researchers and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the results of the clomiphene birth defects studies should be interpreted with caution, as the findings are based on a small group of women who use Clomid and Serophene.

In one clomiphene birth defects study, women who used Clomid and Serophene without proper medical supervision were reported to be 300 percent more likely to give birth to children with several different types of birth defects compared to women who did not use the drug.

Women who used Serophene or Clomid and later gave birth to a child with birth defects should consider filing a Clomid birth defects lawsuit, or joining a Clomid birth defects class action lawsuit.