DIFFERENCE OF THE HORMONAL PROFILE AT THE PERIOVULATORY PHASE IN PREGNANT AND NONPREGNANT CYCLES OF INFERTILE WOMEN WITH UNEXPLAINED ETIOLOGY

Ten women with unexplained infertility, who conceived by intrauterine insemination (IUI) or timed intercourse under controlled ovarian hyper stimulation, were analyzed to investigate the difference of hormonal e nvironment at the periovulatory phase. Forty-two cycles were divided i nto three groups: the pregnant cycle group, the high luteinizing hormo ne (LH) group (LH greater-than-or-equal-to 60 mIU/ml on day-1: the day of human chorionic gonadotropin administration) of nonpregnant cycles and the low LH group (LH < 60 mIU/ml on day -1) of nonpregnant cycles . Progesterone (P4)/estradiol (E2) ratios of the high LH group on day -1 and day 0 were significantly higher than those of each correspondin g day in the pregnant cycle. On the other hand, P4/E2 ratio of the low LH group on day +1 was significantly lower. P4/E2 ratio but absolute level of each hormone showed a high indicative value for the estimatio n of abnormal hormonal environment. It is concluded that the P4/E2 rat io at the periovulatory phase is a good parameter to estimate the effi cacy of the method for ovulation induction.