Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist improves the efficiency of controlled ovarian hyperstimulation/intrauterine insemination

• Published in: Fertility and sterility Vol. 55; no. 5; pp. 939 - 944
• Main Authors: Gagliardi, Carol L., Emmi, Adelina M., Weiss, Gerson, Schmidt, Cecilia L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 01.05.1991; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Birth control; Female; Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone - administration & dosage; Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone - analogs & derivatives; Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone - therapeutic use; Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics; Humans; Infertility - etiology; Infertility - therapy; Insemination, Artificial - methods; Leuprolide; Male; Medical sciences; Menotropins - administration & dosage; Menotropins - therapeutic use; Ovary - physiology; Pregnancy; Pregnancy, Multiple; Sterility. Assisted procreation; Human; Agonist; Chemotherapy; Uterus; Fertility; Induction; Artificial insemination; Gonadotropin RH; Female; Ovulation
• ISSN: 0015-0282; 1556-5653
• DOI: 10.1016/S0015-0282(16)54303-9

Leuprolide acetate (LA) has improved the efficiency of human menopausal gonadotropins (hMG) in in vitro fertilization cycles. We hypothesized that the combination of LA/hMG/intrauterine insemination (IUI) would be more efficacious than hMG/IUI cycles. During an 18-month period, all patients completing either a hMG/IUI cycle (group I) or a LA/hMG/IUI cycle (group II) had the characteristics and outcomes of their stimulation cycles assessed. The groups were not prospectively randomized. Referral center at a tertiary care hospital. One hundred twenty three patients in group I completed 219 cycles, and 64 patients in group II completed 102 cycles. Twenty-eight of the patients who failed to conceive with hMG/IUI were advanced to group II. Pregnancy/IUI is compared between the two groups. Group II demonstrated significantly greater clinical pregnancy/IUI than group I (26.5% and 16.0%, respectively, P<0.05), as well as a higher live birth/IUI (21.6% and 12.8%, respectively, P<0.05). No difference was present in the rate of fetal wastage or multiple births. In our patients with recalcitrant infertility, the addition of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist to hMG/IUI improved the pregnancy rate, without increasing the rate of multiple births or fetal wastage.