Abstract:
INTRODUCTION
This study was performed to compare the outcome
of frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FER) with and
without the prior pituitary down regulation using
gonadotrophin releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa). MATERIAL AND METHODS
At a tertiary care reproductive heaitn centre m Sn
Lanka 107 consecutive FER cycles were studied. The
protocols used were either the pituitary suppression
with GnRHa followed by hormone replacement
(group A) for endometrial preparation or the hormone
replacement without prior pituitary suppression
(group B). Patients were tested for serum B hCG 14
days following the embryo transfer. If the pregnancy
test was positive, an ultrasonography was performed
to diagnose a clinical pregnancy. The results were
analysed by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences
for windows (SPSS) version 15.0.
RESULTS
The group A (n= 44) and group B (n=63) were similar
in age at embryo transfer (34.7± 5.25 and 36.57 ±4.15
years), number of embryos transferred per patient
(2.27 ± 1 and 2.08 ±1.1), the day of embryo transfer
(3.27± 0.58 and 3.21± 0.51 days) and endometrial
thickness on day 11 of the cycle (9.92 ±1.8 and 9.4
±1.9 mm) .The pregnancy test was positive in 20%
(n=8) women in group A and 29.4% (n=15) women
in group B, which was not statistically significant
(p= 0.305). The clinical pregnancy rates in group A
and group B were 15.3% (n=6) and 28.5% (n=14)
respectively, which was not statistically significant
(p=0.143).
CONCLUSIONS
Transferring frozen-thawed embryos with or without
pituitary down regulation using GnRHa yields similar
results.
