 Pill-pre-treatment permits batching of IVF patients
Wednesday 13 July 2005
Pill-pre-treatment permits batching of IVF patients
Source: West Indian Medical Journal 2005; 54: 127-9
Reviewing experience with the use of an oral contraceptive pill to batch women's menstrual cycles for an intermittent IVF program.
The oral contraceptive pill (OCP) can be used to prepare women for IVF in batches without significantly affecting pregnancy rates, a study from the West Indies suggests.
"Assisted reproductive technology (ART) in small islands like Trinidad and Tobago is usually provided in batches so as to minimize the cost of providing the service," explain the researchers. "As a result, patients' cycles have to be synchronized in order to coincide with the arrival of a visiting embryologist."
To evaluate the use of an OCP to batch cycles for an intermittent ART program, S. Ramsewak, from the University of the West Indies, and co-authors conducted a retrospective review of 74 IVF and ICSI cycles preceded by OCP use (Group A) and 121 that did not require such pharmaceutical manipulation (Group B).
Pregnancy rate was higher, although not significantly so, in Group A than in Group B, at 26.3 percent versus 17. 3 percent. In addition, rates of cancellation due to poor ovarian response, spontaneous miscarriage, and ovarian cyst formation were lower in OCP-treated than in non-OCP-treated women.
This experience "indicates that the OCP is a simple, cheap, and efficient means of batching patients for an intermittent ART program and can be utilized in other small ART centers," concludes the team.
Posted: 12 July 2005
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