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Six‐week pretreatment with growth hormone improves clinical outcomes of poor ovarian responders undergoing in vitro fertilization treatment: A self‐controlled clinical study
Author(s) -
Cai MeiHong,
Liang XiaoYan,
Wu YaoQiu,
Huang Rui,
Yang Xing
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of obstetrics and gynaecology research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.597
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1447-0756
pISSN - 1341-8076
DOI - 10.1111/jog.13823
Subject(s) - medicine , in vitro fertilisation , live birth , controlled ovarian hyperstimulation , miscarriage , embryo quality , propensity score matching , confounding , oocyte , pregnancy , gynecology , andrology , embryo , biology , genetics , microbiology and biotechnology
Aim The purpose was to explore whether the 6 weeks of growth hormone (GH) pretreatment could increase the live birth rate of poor ovarian responders (POR). Methods This self‐controlled, retrospective study was performed among 380 POR who had GH adjuvant (GH+) at a university‐affiliated hospital in Guangzhou, China, from October 2010 to April 2016. Growth hormone was injected daily beginning with the previous menstruation and maintained until ovum pickup, for approximately 6 weeks. Clinical variables between the GH+ cycle and the other GH‐free (GH‐) cycle of each patient were compared. Both cycles were conducted with a similar conventional control ovarian hyperstimulation protocol for in vitro fertilization treatment. One to one case–control matching was performed to adjust essential confounding factors between GH+ cycles and GH‐ cycles. Results GH pretreatment improved embryo quality (1.14 ± 1.50 vs 0.11 ± 0.48, P < 0.05) and decreased miscarriage (18.8% vs 80.0%, P < 0.05) significantly, resulting in an increase in the live birth rate (23.5% vs 3.9%, P < 0.05). The oocyte utilization rate in GH+ cycles was remarkably improved, even with older patients and more failed previous attempts. Significant improvement in embryo quality was shown by an increased number of good‐quality embryos and improved oocyte utilization rate after matching. Conclusions The longer term use of low‐dose GH administration for 6 weeks could be beneficial for the utilization of oocytes and for finally increasing the live birth rates of POR.