Cumulative conception and live-birth rates after in vitro fertilization with and without the use of long, short, and ultrashort regimens of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist buserelin.

OBJECTIVE

Our purpose was to compare cumulative conception and live-birth rates after in vitro fertilization with and without the use of the long, short, and ultrashort regimens of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist buserelin.

STUDY DESIGN

Life-table analysis of conception and live-birth rates in relation to ovarian stimulation regimen used in 2893 women who had one of five stimulation regimens exclusively throughout all treatment cycles, namely, human menopausal gonadotropin with or without clomiphene citrate; follicle-stimulating hormone with or without clomiphene citrate; and long, short, and ultrashort protocols of buserelin, plus follicle-stimulating hormone or human menopausal gonadotropin; and in an additional 347 women who had been administered both human menopausal gonadotropin and follicle-stimulating hormone with or without clomiphene citrate.

RESULTS

The cumulative conception rate and cumulative live-birth rate were significantly higher in those women treated exclusively with the long buserelin regimen (59% and 55%, respectively, after three cycles) compared with those who only had human menopausal gonadotropin or follicle-stimulating hormone with or without clomiphene citrate (39% and 29%, respectively, after three cycles) (p = 0.001 and p = 0.0001) or compared with those who had only short or ultrashort buserelin regimens (22% and 17% after two cycles) (p = 0.0001 and p = 0.005). The pregnancy failure rate in patients on the long buserelin regimen was 22.4% (95% confidence interval 14.8% to 30.0%) compared with 33.3% (95% confidence interval 29.6% to 37.0%) in those who had human menopausal gonadotropin or follicle-stimulating hormone with or without clomiphene citrate (p = 0.03). When the probabilities of first conception and first live birth were examined by treatment regimen, after we allowed for the effects of age, cause of infertility, calendar year of treatment, and treatment cycle number (with a multiple logistic regression model), it was found that, relative to human menopausal gonadotropin or follicle-stimulating hormone with or without clomiphene citrate, the odds of conceiving with the long buserelin regimen was 1.63 (95% confidence interval 1.31 to 2.03) (p < 0.001) and the odds of a live birth was 1.97 (95% confidence interval 1.53 to 2.54) (p < 0.001). Similarly, relative to short or ultrashort buserelin the odds of conceiving with long bureselin was 1.88 (95% confidence interval 1.39 to 2.55) (p < 0.001) and the odds of a live birth was 1.79 (95% confidence interval 1.25 to 2.56) (p = 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Pituitary desensitization with the long protocol of buserelin significantly increases the probabilities of conception and live birth after in vitro fertilization.