Effectiveness of highly purified human menopausal gonadotropin in intra-uterine insemination

Abstract Objective In assisted reproductive techniques it is important to find a balance between high pregnancy and acceptable multiple pregnancy rates. In IVF treatment, stimulation with highly purified human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) results in comparable or even higher pregnancy rates at lower oocyte yields compared to recombinant FSH. Since highly purified hMG contains LH activity, a number of the advantages of highly purified hMG may be attributed to this LH activity. In IUI treatment the effectiveness of highly purified hMG has been barely investigated. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of highly purified hMG in IUI patients treated with a mild stimulation protocol. Study design In this retrospective study 378 patients were included, receiving 1400 IUI cycles between January 2006 and December 2007. Patients were first treated with three subsequent natural cycles without controlled ovarian hyperstimulation, followed by three subsequent cycles stimulated with highly purified hMG. Primary outcomes were ongoing pregnancy rate and multifollicular growth. Secondary outcomes were multiple pregnancy and miscarriage rates. Primary and secondary outcomes were expressed in percentages with associated 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). Differences in the outcomes between natural and stimulated cycles were calculated using χ2 tests. Statistical differences were determined at P < 0. 05. Results Ongoing pregnancy rates increased from 6% (95%CI 4.7–7.7) per natural cycle to 7.4% (95%CI 5.2–10.3) per highly purified hMG stimulated cycle ( p = 0.34). The highest ongoing pregnancy rate was observed in the fifth treatment cycle (10.8% (95%CI 6.6–17)), which is significantly higher than the ongoing pregnancy rate in the unstimulated group ( p = 0.03). In the highly purified hMG group three (9.7% (95%CI 3.3–24.9)) of the ongoing pregnancies were twin pregnancies, in the unstimulated group there was one (1.7% (95%CI 0.3–9.0)) twin pregnancy ( p = 0.08). Conclusion Our results indicate that mild stimulation with highly purified hMG in IUI treatment results in an acceptable balance between ongoing and multiple pregnancy rates. Future prospective trials should compare mild stimulation protocols to protocols directly starting with controlled ovarian hyperstimulation. Furthermore, these trials should compare other types and dosages of gonadotropins.