Efficacy and Safety of Medication Used to Stimulate Ovulation

Summary

Individuals undergoing In Vitro Fertilization must undergo controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) to produce enough quality eggs for fertility treatment. Ovarian follicular responsiveness to COH with gonadotropins is extremely variable between patients and even from cycle to cycle for the same patient. Achieving an ideal follicular response is critical to the success of assisted reproduction treatment (ART). Patients have been classified as 'poor', 'normal' or 'high' responders, which dictate the amount of gonadotropins that they receive. It is still important to develop treatments with high efficacy, lower multiple birth rates, and a lower complication rate for each of these groups. In an era of evidence-based medicine and with special emphasis on reducing IVF risks (mainly OHSS and pregnancies with multiples), it is very important to find optimal and safe ovulation induction and triggering regimens for each patient population. The use of GnRH agonist (GnRHa) triggering among high responders in order to reduce or eliminate OHSS is an example of an important breakthrough in the clinical management of IVF patients. Although GnRHa triggering was shown to be as effective as human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) at inducing oocyte maturation more than 20 years ago, its use to trigger ovulation was not possible until the introduction of GnRH antagonists for pituitary suppression. Another prominent trend in ART in recent years has been the introduction of dual triggering, which involves a combination of GnRHa plus hCG for triggering. This regimen creates simultaneous lutenizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) surges by the GnRHa, which resembles physiologic ovulation triggering, together with sustained LH-like activity from the hCG, which stimulates the corpus luteum to excrete sufficient hormonal endometrial support. Since its introduction, dual triggering has been gaining popularity due to outstanding results in retrospective studies among both normal and high responders. Moreover, in spite of the encouraging retrospective reports, prospective randomized controlled trials (RCT) on dual triggering have not been reported to date. The aim of the current proposed study is to compare the efficacy of dual triggering and conventional triggering among the three IVF populations (high, normal and poor responders).

Timeline

Start

2015-10

Primary completion

2020-09

Completion

2021-09

Publications

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• Background Fauser BC, de Jong D, Olivennes F, Wramsby H, Tay C, Itskovitz-Eldor J, van Hooren HG. Endocrine profiles after triggering of final oocyte maturation with GnRH agonist after cotreatment with the GnRH antagonist ganirelix during ovarian hyperstimulation for in vitro fertilization. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2002 Feb;87(2):709-15. doi: 10.1210/jcem.87.2.8197.
• Background Humaidan P, Bredkjaer HE, Bungum L, Bungum M, Grondahl ML, Westergaard L, Andersen CY. GnRH agonist (buserelin) or hCG for ovulation induction in GnRH antagonist IVF/ICSI cycles: a prospective randomized study. Hum Reprod. 2005 May;20(5):1213-20. doi: 10.1093/humrep/deh765. Epub 2005 Mar 10.
• Background Kolibianakis EM, Schultze-Mosgau A, Schroer A, van Steirteghem A, Devroey P, Diedrich K, Griesinger G. A lower ongoing pregnancy rate can be expected when GnRH agonist is used for triggering final oocyte maturation instead of HCG in patients undergoing IVF with GnRH antagonists. Hum Reprod. 2005 Oct;20(10):2887-92. doi: 10.1093/humrep/dei150. Epub 2005 Jun 24.
• Background Humaidan P, Kol S, Papanikolaou EG; Copenhagen GnRH Agonist Triggering Workshop Group. GnRH agonist for triggering of final oocyte maturation: time for a change of practice? Hum Reprod Update. 2011 Jul-Aug;17(4):510-24. doi: 10.1093/humupd/dmr008. Epub 2011 Mar 30.
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• Background Acevedo B, Gomez-Palomares JL, Ricciarelli E, Hernandez ER. Triggering ovulation with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists does not compromise embryo implantation rates. Fertil Steril. 2006 Dec;86(6):1682-7. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2006.05.049. Epub 2006 Oct 30.
• Background Blazquez A, Guillen JJ, Colome C, Coll O, Vassena R, Vernaeve V. Empty follicle syndrome prevalence and management in oocyte donors. Hum Reprod. 2014 Oct 10;29(10):2221-7. doi: 10.1093/humrep/deu203. Epub 2014 Aug 1.
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• Background Lin MH, Wu FS, Lee RK, Li SH, Lin SY, Hwu YM. Dual trigger with combination of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist and human chorionic gonadotropin significantly improves the live-birth rate for normal responders in GnRH-antagonist cycles. Fertil Steril. 2013 Nov;100(5):1296-302. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2013.07.1976. Epub 2013 Aug 28.
• Background Griffin D, Feinn R, Engmann L, Nulsen J, Budinetz T, Benadiva C. Dual trigger with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist and standard dose human chorionic gonadotropin to improve oocyte maturity rates. Fertil Steril. 2014 Aug;102(2):405-9. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2014.04.028. Epub 2014 May 17.
• Background Haas J, Zilberberg E, Dar S, Kedem A, Machtinger R, Orvieto R. Co-administration of GnRH-agonist and hCG for final oocyte maturation (double trigger) in patients with low number of oocytes retrieved per number of preovulatory follicles--a preliminary report. J Ovarian Res. 2014 Aug 2;7:77. doi: 10.1186/1757-2215-7-77.
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