NUCLEAR MATURITY AND OOCYTE MORPHOLOGY AFTER STIMULATION WITH HIGHLY PURIFIED FOLLICLE-STIMULATING-HORMONE COMPARED TO HUMAN MENOPAUSAL GONADOTROPIN

Several studies have shown that high concentrations of luteinizing hor mone (LH) in the follicular phase of stimulation can have a negative e ffect on oocyte quality, pregnancy rate and incidence of miscarriage, The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of highly puri fied follicle stimulating hormone (FSH HP) on ovarian stimulation and particularly on nuclear maturity and morphological appearance of the o ocyte in intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) therapy and to compar e the results with human menopausal gonadotrophin (HMG) stimulation, F or this purpose, 50 patients for ICSI (HMG: 30; FSH HP: 20) and 26 pat ients for in-vitro fertilization (IVF; HMG: 14, FSH HP: 12) were stimu lated with either HMG or FSH HP using a short-term protocol, Patients were divided into the two groups according to the first letter of thei r family name, No differences were observed among the groups in relati on to patient age, duration of stimulation, number of aspirated oocyte s or maturity of the oocyte-cumulus complex, After removal of the cumu lus-corona cells in the ICSI oocytes, a significantly higher proportio n of oocytes in the FSH HP group were nuclear mature (metaphase II) th an in the HMG group (FSH HP: 88.8%, HMG: 80.6%; P = 0.009), Furthermor e, in the FSH HP group, significantly fewer oocytes with dark cytoplas m were observed (FSH HP: 14.4%, HMG: 22.4%; P = 0.02), Fertilization, cleavage and pregnancy rates (FSH HP 38%, HMG: 34% per retrieval) were comparable in both groups, Based on the results obtained, it can be c oncluded that the short-term FSH HP treatment protocol synchronizes oo cyte maturation better than comparable stimulation with HMG.