Recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone (rFSH) supplemented with low-dose human chorionic gonadotropin compared with rFSH alone for ovarian stimulation for in vitro fertilization

Low-dose human chorionic gonadotropin may improve in vitro fertilization cycle outcomes in patients with low luteinizing hormone levels after gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist administration

“…The beta subunit of hCG has a different structure and glycosylation pattern than LH, resulting in a sixfold increased affinity for the LH/hCG receptor and longer half-life (13). We have previously shown that a low-dose hCG protocol also reduces IVF stimulation costs by an average of $600 per cycle by reducing the amount of FSH needed to complete stimulation (14). As low-dose hCG is a cost effective alternative for adding LH activity and has demonstrable biologic activity at low doses, we chose low-dose hCG as the source of LH activity in our stimulation protocol.…”

“…The administration of hCG promotes follicular growth and oocyte maturation, thereby decreasing the amount of FSH needed for ovarian stimulation (12,14,15). We previously published a study that showed that hCG supplementation results in lower medication costs and similar pregnancy rates compared with FSH-only stimulation for GnRH-antagonist IVF cycles (14).…”

Oral contraceptive pretreatment in women undergoing controlled ovarian stimulation in ganirelix acetate cycles may, for a subset of patients, be associated with low serum luteinizing hormone levels, reduced ovarian response to gonadotropins, and early pregnancy loss

“…Bellver et al found no increase of early pregnancy loss with OC pretreatment cycles of which 84% were treated with both FSH and either hMG or recombinant LH, they but did not report on the outcome of the 16% who did not receive supplementation (9). Recently Van Horne et al examined the potential benefit of supplementing these cycles with a low dose of hCG (10). Although the rate of spontaneous abortion decreased from 17% to 6%, the study was not adequately powered to examine this variable.…”

Efficacy of low dose hCG on oocyte maturity for ovarian stimulation in poor responder women undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycle: a randomized controlled trial

“…A comparable trend which didn't achieve statistical significance, was also noted in a similar trial in poor responders [22]. Some other previous studies reported a significant decrease in total dosage and duration of rFSH treatment in administration of rFSH supplemented or substituted by low dose hCG in a GnRH antagonist protocol [18,19,35,47].…”