Gonadotropin stimulation after pituitary desensitization with leuprolide acetate, comparison of FSH/hMG and hMG alone cycles--a study of 166 cases.

The tenet that a combination of human follicle-stimulating hormone (hFSH)/human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) after pituitary desensitization with GnRH analogue improves follicular recruitment was assessed by treating infertile women in an in vitro fertilization (IVF) program. The participants of this study were one hundred sixty-six infertile patients on IVF program who received FSH/hMG, or hMG alone superovulation protocol after pituitary desensitization. Fertilization rate, cancellation rate, mean number of follicles, and endometrial thickness did not differ between the two groups. But in the FSH/hMG group, total oocyte per retrieval, embryo score, implantation rate, and viable pregnancy rates were slightly higher although the increase was not significant. Furthermore, the rate of preovulatory oocytes per retrieval, Estradiol (E2) level, embryos frozen, and embryos transferred were significantly higher in this group. This suggested that increasing the exogenous FSH/LH ratio in ovulation induction may result in a higher recovery of fertilizable oocytes and a subsequent potential for improvement in IVF outcome.