Viagra boost for mum

British women are using Viagra as a fertility drug to help them get pregnant.

New Zealand fertility experts are not recommending the anti-impotence drug to couples here but about 10 British women have conceived while using Viagra.

Dr Mohamed Taranissi, director of the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre in London, said early results were promising.

Among them is marketing consultant Sharon Row, aged 31, who is six months pregnant with twins after doctors suggested that she take the drug, which is more commonly associated with male impotence.

She told Britain's Sunday Mirror: "My first reaction was to laugh out loud when the consultant suggested Viagra."

Mrs Row and husband Steve, who live in the Home Counties, had been trying for a baby for four years without success.

She said: "While the thought of me being on Viagra seemed absurd, I would have tried anything that provided the slightest chance of Steve and I becoming parents. After just a fortnight I was told I was pregnant."

Mr Row, 36, said: "At first I was sceptical when it was suggested Sharon try Viagra - it sounded like a bad joke and there was no end of mickey-taking from my friends.

"But now I cannot thank the consultant or the drugmakers enough.

"They have given us a family, something we'd lost all hope of being lucky enough to have."

Dr Taranissi said the drug was being used by those with a particular problem - a thin uterus lining - which he said affected 5 per cent of women in Britain.

His work follows pioneering trials by Dr Geoffrey Sher in Las Vegas.

Dr Sher worked on the principle that the rush of blood which makes Viagra popular with men could be used to increase the thickness of a woman's uterus lining, giving a better chance of implantation of a fertilised egg during IVF treatment.

The medical director of New Zealand company Fertility Associates, Richard Fisher, did not recommend using Viagra as a pregnancy aid.

"The problem is the only studies that have been done so far have been small and not part of controlled trials. I don't think we would be recommending it yet - there's just not enough proof."