COMPARISON OF INTRAUTERINE INSEMINATION WITH TIMED INTERCOURSE IN SUPEROVULATED CYCLES WITH GONADOTROPINS - A METAANALYSIS

Objective: To compare timed intercourse and IUI with the husband's spe rm in patients with unexplained infertility who are undergoing superov ulation with gonadotropins. Design: Meta-analysis. Ail published repor ts of randomized, prospective studies with an English-language abstrac t extracted from MEDLINE were analyzed. A crossover search was done fr om the papers obtained. Setting: Academic center. Patient(s): Couples with unexplained infertility. Intervention(s): Meta-analysis of studie s evaluating patients superovulated with gonadotropins and randomized for timed intercourse or IUI. Main Outcome Measure(s): Pregnancy rates (PRs) were obtained. The common odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence in tervals (95% CI) were calculated. Result(s): There were 49 pregnancies in 431 cycles of timed intercourse (11.37%), whereas there were 110 p regnancies in 549 cycles of IUI (20.04%). The PRs for IUI were signifi cantly increased compared with those for timed intercourse in superovu lation cycles (common OR = 1.84; 95% CI = 1.30-2.62). Conclusion(s): O n the basis of the meta-analysis of 980 cycles in randomized and prosp ective studies, a patient's chances of becoming pregnant are greater w ith IUI with her husband's sperm than with timed intercourse in cycles superovulated with gonadotropins. (C) 1998 by American Society for Re productive Medicine.