Therapeutic donor insemination: the impact of insemination timing with the aid of a urinary luteinizing hormone immunoassay

The records of 120 patients undergoing therapeutic donor insemination were reviewed to determine if the use of the enzyme immunoassay of urinary luteinizing hormone (LH) to plan inseminations decreased the number of cycles required to achieve conception. All inseminations were performed with fresh semen. Patients in group 1 (n=26) utilized urinary LH testing in addition to basal body temperature (BBT) and cervical mucus examinations to time their inseminations, while inseminations in group 2 (n=94) were timed with only BBT and cervical mucus examinations. The monthly fecundability of patients in group 1 was 0.13, whereas the monthly fecundability of patients in group 2 was 0.11. The mean number of inseminations was 1.4 and 1.6 per cycle for groups 1 and 2, respectively. There were no significant differences between groups 1 and 2 in regard to the number of cycles required to achieve conception. The use of a urinary LH immunoassay for insemination timing offers no benefit over conventional methods of timing (BBT, cervical mucus) when fresh donor semen is used.