Does daily co administration of gonadotropins and letrozole during the ovarian stimulation improve IVF outcome for poor and sub optimal responders?

Moran Shapira, Raoul Orvieto, Oshrit Lebovitz, Ravit Nahum, Adva Aizer, Aliza Segev-Zahav, Jigal Haas*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Co-administration of letrozole during the first 5 days of ovarian stimulation was suggested to improve IVF outcomes in poor responders. We aimed to determine whether poor/sub-optimal responders might benefit from Letrozole co-treatment throughout the entire stimulation course. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical files of women who demonstrated poor (oocyte yield ≤3) and sub-optimal (4 ≤ oocyte yield ≤9) ovarian response during conventional multiple-dose antagonist stimulation protocols and were co-treated in a subsequent cycle with 5 mg Letrozole from the first day of stimulation until trigger day. A self-paired comparison between gonadotropins-only and gonadotropins-letrozole cycles was performed. Results: Twenty-four patients were included. Mean patients' age was 39.83 ± 4.60 and mean day-3-FSH was 12.77 ± 4.49 IU/m. Duration of stimulation and total gonadotropins dose were comparable between the two cycle groups. Peak estradiol levels were significantly lower in gonadotropins-letrozole cycles (2786.74 ± 2118.53 vs 1200.13 ± 535.98, p < 0.05). Number of retrieved oocytes (3.29 ± 2.15 vs 6.46 ± 3.20, p < 0.05), MII-oocytes (2.47 ± 1.65 vs 5.59 ± 3.20, p < 0.05), 2PN-embryos (1.78 ± 1.50, 4.04 ± 2.74, p < 0.05) and top-quality embryos (0.91 ± 0.97 vs. 2.35 ± 1.66, p < 0.05) were significantly higher in the gonadotropins-letrozole cycles. Clinical pregnancy rate in gonadotropins-letrozole cycles was 31.5%. Conclusion: Letrozole co-treatment during the entire stimulation course improves ovarian response and IVF outcomes in poor/sub-optimal responders.

Original languageEnglish
Article number66
JournalJournal of Ovarian Research
Volume13
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 8 Jun 2020

Keywords

  • Androgens
  • Aromatase inhibitors
  • IVF
  • Letrozole
  • Poor responders

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