PURPOSES: The aim of this study is to determine whether a clinical advantage is gained with use of LH in combination with FSH or as a component of human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) to achieve optimal ovarian stimulation. METHODS: In this study, we compared retrospectively two regimens, r-FSH/r-LH and hMG, for the treatment of women with reduced ovarian reserve, identified as subjects with antral follicle count (AFC) < 11 and AMH ≤ 1.1 ng/ml. RESULTS: Overall, the clinical pregnancy per started cycle was higher in the r-FSH/r-LH group (12.5 vs. 8.1%, P < 0.02), while implantation (11.1 vs. 9.5%) and miscarriage rates (29.9 vs. 35.9%) were comparable. Data were further analysed performing separate comparisons in subpopulations with different ranges of AFC, i.e. < 4, 4-6 and 7-10. Major differences between the two regimens were observed in women with AFC < 4. In this subpopulation, not only was the clinical pregnancies per started cycle higher in the r-FSH/r-LH group (10.2 vs. 1.5%, P < 0.01), but also implantation was significantly higher (13.0 vs. 2.8%, P < 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: A r-FSH/r-LH regimen appears to be beneficial for the treatment of women with extremely poor ovarian reserve. It should be considered however that, being retrospective, this study is affected by obvious limitations, such as post-treatment patient selection criteria and absence of randomisation.
PURPOSES: The aim of this study is to determine whether a clinical advantage is gained with use of LH in combination with FSH or as a component of human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) to achieve optimal ovarian stimulation. METHODS: In this study, we compared retrospectively two regimens, r-FSH/r-LH and hMG, for the treatment of women with reduced ovarian reserve, identified as subjects with antral follicle count (AFC) < 11 and AMH ≤ 1.1 ng/ml. RESULTS: Overall, the clinical pregnancy per started cycle was higher in the r-FSH/r-LH group (12.5 vs. 8.1%, P < 0.02), while implantation (11.1 vs. 9.5%) and miscarriage rates (29.9 vs. 35.9%) were comparable. Data were further analysed performing separate comparisons in subpopulations with different ranges of AFC, i.e. < 4, 4-6 and 7-10. Major differences between the two regimens were observed in women with AFC < 4. In this subpopulation, not only was the clinical pregnancies per started cycle higher in the r-FSH/r-LH group (10.2 vs. 1.5%, P < 0.01), but also implantation was significantly higher (13.0 vs. 2.8%, P < 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: A r-FSH/r-LH regimen appears to be beneficial for the treatment of women with extremely poor ovarian reserve. It should be considered however that, being retrospective, this study is affected by obvious limitations, such as post-treatment patient selection criteria and absence of randomisation.
Authors: Thor Haahr; Carlos Dosouto; Carlo Alviggi; Sandro C Esteves; Peter Humaidan Journal: Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) Date: 2019-09-11 Impact factor: 5.555