Luteal phase and clinical outcome after human menopausal gonadotrophin gonadotrophin releasing hormone antagonist treatment for ovarian stimulation in in-vitro fertilization intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles

The luteal phase hormonal profile and the clinical outcome of 69 patients u ndergoing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) after ovarian stimulation with human menopausal gonadotrophin (HMG) and the gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist Cetrorelix were a nalysed. Twenty-four patients received Cetrorelix 0.5 mg (group I) while in 45 patients Cetrorelix 0.25 mg was administered (group II). Human chorioni c gonadotrophin (HCG) was used as luteal support. Nine clinical pregnancies were obtained in group I (37.5%) and 12 in group II (26.6%). These results were not significantly different. Serum progesterone and oestradiol concen trations did not differ between the two groups either in pregnant or non-pr egnant patients. Gn expected decrease of the same hormones was observed 8 d ays after the preovulatory HCG injection in non-pregnant women. With regard to serum luteinizing hormone concentrations, a decrease was observed 2 day s after the pre-ovulatory HCG injection and was maintained at almost undete ctable levels throughout the entire luteal phase in both conception and non -conception cycles of group I and group II. This study demonstrates that di fferent doses of GnRH antagonist do not have any impact on the luteal phase of IVF/ICSI cycles when hormonal support is given.