Clinical effect of short-term low-dose growth hormone supplementation in promoting pregnancy in patients with previous in vitro fertilization failure

Abstract:

Objective：To investigate the effect of low-dose growth hormone（GH） supplementation on embryo quality and pregnancy outcome in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer（IVF-ET）. Methods：From September 2017 to September 2018，76 young patients，aged <37 years，who did not obtain a high-quality embryo or achieve successful pregnancy after the previous cycle of IVF，were enrolled as subjects. In the subsequent cycle，the same regimen for ovulation induction was used，and low-dose GH was provided as a supplement during controlled ovarian hyperstimulation（COH）. A self-control study was performed to compare duration of gonadotropin（Gn），number of retrieved oocytes，number of transplantable embryos，rate of high-quality embryos，endometrial thickness，clinical pregnancy rate，implantation rate，and chemical or clinical pregnancy loss rate between the two cycles. Results：After the supplementation with GH，there were no significant changes in the total amount of Gn，serum estradiol level on the day of Gn withdrawal，endometrial thickness on the day of Gn withdrawal，number of retrieved oocytes，average number of transplantable embryos，and rate of cancellation due to no transplantable embryos（P>0.05），but there was a significant reduction in the number of days of Gn administration（10.39±1.38 vs. 11.14±1.78，P=0.004） and significant increases in the rate of high-quality embryos（18.9% vs. 0.0%），clinical pregnancy rate[51.32%（39/76） vs. 7.89% （6/76）]，and implantation rate [38.73%（55/142） vs. 5.00%（7/140）]. There were no significant change in chemical or clini－cal pregnancy loss rate（P>0.05）. Conclusion：For patients with poor embryo quality of unknown causes，low-dose GH supple－mentation in the second cycle of IVF can help to achieve a good pregnancy outcome.