Effect of Intra-Uterine Injection of hCG on Implantation Rate in IVF Candidates

Background and Objectives: Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is the embryonic hormone and one of the most important factors for implantation. The present study aimed to evaluate effect of intra-uterine injection of hCG before embryo transfer on the pregnancy outcome in IVF. Methods: In this study, 180 infertile patients were randomly allocated into an experiment and a control group. In the experiment group, before embryo transfer, 500 IU hCG were injected into the endometrium cavity in puncture stage. Equal amount of phosphate buffer (placebo) was injected to the subjects in the control group. Pregnancy test was done two weeks after the intervention. In case of positive results, ultrasound scan was done for detecting the gestational sac and numbers of sacs. Results: Mean age of the patients was 30±3.41 years and 31±4.12 years in the experimental and control group, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in the duration of infertility between the two groups (4.77±3.67 years vs. 4.87±3.74 years). Based on the hCG level, the pregnancy rate was 35.5% in both groups. However, based on ultrasound findings, the pregnancy rate was 35.5% and 28.8% in the experiment group and the control group, respectively (P=0.33). In addition, there was no significant difference in the pregnancy rates between different age groups. Conclusion: Our results indicate that the intra-uterine injection of β-hCG has no significant effect on the pregnancy rate in IVF.