Ovulation induction and pregnancies in 100 consecutive women with hypergonadotropic amenorrhea.

The efficacy of a technique of gonadotropin suppression and human menopausal gonadotropins (hMG) to induce ovulation in women with hypergonadotropic amenorrhea was evaluated in 100 consecutive women. Ovulation was achieved in 19% of cycles (68/361), the pregnancy rate per cycle was 5.2% (19/361), and the viable pregnancy rate was 2.2% (8/361). In the majority of the successful cases, estrogen was used to decrease the elevated luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone levels, especially where the ethinyl estradiol therapy alone induced a rise in endogenous 17 beta-estradiol levels with hMG used to boost the follicle to maturation. Although the success rate is low, this technique can result in some successes in otherwise almost hopeless cases.