Effects of different amounts of LH on superovulation induction with long-acting CnRH in an IVF program

Objective-To evaluate whether different doses of exogenous LH affect IVF outcome. Design-Retrospective analysis of two consecutive trials. Setting-Infertility Unit of 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Milan, Italy. Patients-Two groups of 40 eumennorrheic patients matched for age and indications for in vitro fertilization. Intervention-After suppression with a GnRH analogue, both groups received equal amounts of FSH in the first five days of stimulation; after this, the proportions of LH administered were doubled in one group because a different preparation was in use. Main outcome measures-The following observations were compared: number of scans (days to hCG), number of oocytes retrieved, fertilization rate, quality and number of embryos transferred, pregnancy and abortion rate. Results-Doubling the amount of LH administered does not affect any outcome measure except the number of days of stimulation needed prior to hCG administration. Conclusions-No significant difference was seen in terms of number of oocytes, embryo number and quality, pregnancy and abortion rate. The only differ-ence was the length of the stimulation phase.