IVF Medications in Nigeria: What Each Drug Does
Your clinic hands you a protocol sheet, a bag of boxes and a date. Somewhere on that sheet are four or five names you have never seen before, a schedule that changes mid-cycle, and an instruction to keep some of it in the fridge.
This guide explains the IVF medications in Nigeria that appear on almost every protocol, what each one is actually doing, and how to store them in a country where the power goes and the car gets hot. That last part matters more than most patients realise, and almost nobody writes it down.
What IVF medications in Nigeria are doing, in four jobs
Strip away the brand names and every protocol does the same four things in order.
| The job | What it means | Typical drugs |
| Grow the follicles | Push the ovaries to mature several eggs rather than one | Gonal-F, Puregon, Menopur |
| Stop early ovulation | Hold the eggs in place until collection day | Cetrotide, or a GnRH agonist |
| Trigger maturation | Ripen the eggs on a precise schedule before collection | Ovitrelle |
| Support the lining | Keep the womb lining ready for an embryo | Cyclogest, Utrogestan, Crinone |
Understanding that sequence helps more than memorising brands, because the IVF medications in Nigeria carry the same names as everywhere else while the conditions around them differ. When a nurse changes your dose after a scan, she is adjusting job one. When she tells you the trigger goes in at exactly 9pm, she is protecting job three, because egg collection happens roughly 36 hours later and the timing is not flexible.
The drugs on your prescription, one by one
Almost every set of IVF medications in Nigeria draws on the same handful of products, so here is what each one does.
Gonal-F and Puregon
Both are follicle stimulating hormone made by recombinant technology, so they do the same job through slightly different molecules. They come as pens you dial to a dose, and they are usually the backbone of the cycle.
You inject daily into the fat of the lower abdomen or thigh, generally for eight to twelve days, with the dose adjusted after scans and blood tests.
Menopur
Menopur contains both FSH and LH activity, drawn from a different source, and some protocols use it alongside a pen rather than instead of one. It arrives as a powder with a separate solvent, so you mix it yourself before injecting.
Above all, mix it only when you are ready to inject.
Cetrotide and the agonists
Cetrotide is a GnRH antagonist. It blocks the signal that would otherwise release your eggs early, and it usually starts partway through stimulation, once follicles reach a certain size.
Some clinics instead use a GnRH agonist such as leuprolide or triptorelin, started earlier, in what clinicians call a long protocol. Both approaches work. Your clinic chooses based on your history and your scan results, not on preference.
Ovitrelle, the trigger
Ovitrelle is human chorionic gonadotrophin, and it is the single most time-critical injection of the cycle. It tells the eggs to complete maturation, and your clinic books collection from the moment you take it.
Therefore set an alarm. Take it at the exact time written on your sheet, not the nearest convenient hour.
Progesterone
After collection, progesterone keeps the womb lining receptive. Cyclogest, Utrogestan, Crinone and Prometrium all deliver it, by pessary, capsule or gel, and it continues into early pregnancy if the cycle works.
Storing IVF medications in Nigeria, where cycles are quietly lost
Here is the section to read twice, because heat is the part of this process Nigerian patients control and international guides ignore.
Most IVF medications in Nigeria arrive with storage instructions written for temperate countries, so read this table against the reality outside your window.
What the manufacturers actually say
These figures come from the manufacturers’ own product information.
| Medicine | Before you open it | After first use |
| Gonal-F pen | Fridge at 2 to 8 degrees. It may sit at up to 25 degrees for a single period of up to 3 months, then it must go | Keep between 2 and 25 degrees, cap on, and discard after 28 days |
| Cetrotide | Fridge at 2 to 8 degrees. It may sit at room temperature, not above 30 degrees, for up to 3 months in its original box | Once mixed, inject immediately |
| Menopur | Room temperature, away from light | Once mixed, inject immediately unless your clinic tells you otherwise |
| Ovitrelle | Keep refrigerated. Some packs allow a limited spell at room temperature, so read yours | Use as directed, straight away |
| Progesterone pessaries and gel | Room temperature, away from heat | As labelled |
Four rules for Nigerian conditions
Four practical rules follow from that table.
Write the date of first use on every pen. The 28 day clock starts then, and nobody remembers three weeks later.
Plan for the power. A fridge that warms during a long outage is a risk to the whole cycle. Keep the door shut, use a cool box with ice packs if an outage runs long, and never let a pen touch an ice pack directly. Freezing destroys these drugs, and a frozen pen never recovers, even after it thaws.
Never leave medicines in a parked car. A car in Lagos sun passes 25 degrees within minutes and keeps going. That single habit ruins more fertility drugs here than anything else.
Take the pen out 30 minutes before injecting. Let it reach room temperature on its own. Do not warm it in a microwave, in hot water or on anything electrical.
How to know your IVF medications in Nigeria are genuine
Counterfeits are not a theoretical worry in this market. In 2023 NAFDAC issued a public alert after Pfizer warned that counterfeit Dostinex, a medicine used in fertility care, was circulating in Nigeria. The fake tablets were the wrong shape, and the expiry date encoded in the pack contradicted the date printed on the box.
NAFDAC’s advice was simple and worth repeating. Buy only from authorised, licensed suppliers, and check the authenticity and physical condition of what you receive.
So before you inject anything, check four things.
- The pack arrives sealed and undamaged, with no signs of opening or resealing
- The batch number and expiry match between the outer carton and the inner pen or vial
- The solution is clear and free of particles, and powder looks like powder rather than a caked lump
- The pharmacy holds a licence and will tell you where the product came from
If anything looks wrong, do not inject it. Call the pharmacy and the clinic before the dose time, not after.
Injecting them without dread
Most people fear this part far more than they need to. Injecting IVF medications in Nigeria works exactly as it does anywhere else, and the technique takes one evening to learn.
Wash your hands. Clean the site. Pinch the skin of your lower abdomen a few centimetres from the navel, or the front of your thigh, and inject at the angle your nurse showed you. Rotate the spot each night so one area does not get sore. Bruising is common and harmless.
Put every used needle in a sharps container or a thick sealed plastic container, and never in a household bin loose.
If you miss a dose or inject the wrong amount, call your clinic the same day. Do not double the next dose to catch up.
When to stop and call somebody
Most side effects of IVF medications in Nigeria are mild. Bloating, tenderness, mood swings, headaches and injection site bruising are all expected.
Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome is the exception, and it is an emergency. Go to hospital, or call your clinic immediately, for any of these.
- Rapid abdominal swelling, or sudden weight gain over a day or two
- Severe abdominal pain
- Breathlessness, or difficulty lying flat
- Passing very little urine
- Persistent vomiting, or severe nausea
Also seek help urgently for a positive pregnancy test with one-sided pain and bleeding, which may mean an ectopic pregnancy, and for redness, heat or spreading pain at an injection site.
Common questions
Questions about the drugs
Are Gonal-F and Puregon interchangeable?
They do the same job through different molecules. Only your clinic changes between them, because dosing does not transfer across one to one.
Can I use a pen after 28 days if it still has liquid in it?
No. Discard it at 28 days from first use whatever remains. Keeping it is how a cycle quietly fails.
What if a pen was left out of the fridge overnight?
Do not guess. Note how long and how hot, then call the pharmacy and the clinic before the next dose. Gonal-F tolerates room temperature within defined limits, and other drugs tolerate less.
Do generics and biosimilars work?
Biosimilar follitropins exist, and clinics use them widely. Ask your clinic whether your protocol allows one, because the doctor prescribing the cycle should make that call rather than the person selling it.
Questions about the process
Will these drugs bring on early menopause?
No. They recruit eggs that your body would have lost in that cycle anyway rather than spending a future supply.
Can I travel with them?
Yes, with planning. Carry them in hand luggage in an insulated bag with ice packs that do not touch the pens, and take your prescription and clinic letter with you.
Does a pharmacy decide which IVF medications in Nigeria I take?
No, and it should never try. Your clinic sets the protocol, the doses and the timing. A pharmacy sources, stores, delivers and explains, and refers every clinical question back to your team.
What if I cannot afford the whole cycle at once?
Say so early, to the clinic and to the pharmacy. Protocols sometimes have flexibility, and knowing your constraint before day one is far better than running out mid-stimulation.
Getting IVF medications in Nigeria when the calendar will not move
A stimulation cycle does not wait. If a drug arrives two days late, the protocol suffers, and nobody gets those two days back.
That is the work HubPharm Africa exists to do. We source verified medicines through licensed channels, hold cold chain products properly, prioritise same-day dispatch on time-critical fertility items, deliver across Nigeria, and put a pharmacist on the phone when a pen has been out of the fridge and you need an answer tonight. Where a product is not routinely stocked here, we tell you honestly whether we can source it and what the lead time looks like, rather than letting you hope. Across our programmes we have seen a 42 percent improvement in medication adherence and 95 percent patient satisfaction.
All cold chain medications is packed with ice pack at the required temperature. We offer same day delivery in Lagos, 12-48 hours across South West, 48-72 hours across Nigeria and 3-5 days for international delivery
IVF medications in Nigeria fail patients through delay and heat far more often than through pharmacology. Send us your protocol sheet and we will tell you what we can supply and when.
[Talk to a HubPharm pharmacist →]
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This article is for general information and does not replace advice from your fertility clinic. Never start, change, delay or stop any part of a protocol without speaking to the team running your cycle. Storage advice here reflects manufacturer product information, and the leaflet inside your own pack always takes precedence.
References
- GONAL-f pen, Summary of Product Characteristics, sections 6.3 and 6.4.
- Cetrotide 0.25 mg, Summary of Product Characteristics, section 6.4.
- NAFDAC Public Alert No. 021/2023, Pfizer warns against counterfeit Dostinex in Nigeria.
- Manufacturer patient instructions for Gonal-F and Menopur, University Hospitals fertility centre.
- Aetiological pattern of infertility cases managed at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, North-Central Nigeria.