Comparing the effectiveness of infertility treatments by numbers needed to treat (NNT)

F Comhaire, Frank Comhaire, W Decleer
Andrologia · 2012 · vol. 44(6) , pp. 401–404 · doi:10.1111/j.1439-0272.2012.01295.x · PMID:22536793 · W2018580662
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-13 ⓘ

This study calculated the number needed to treat for various infertility therapies, finding nutraceutical food supplementation to be potentially beneficial in several male and couple-based treatments.

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Abstract

To compare the clinical efficiency of different modes of treatment of infertile couples and to estimate the possible benefit of nutraceutical food supplementation (NFS), the numbers needed to treat (NNT) was calculated in 4143 infertile couples based on controlled trials in recent literature and personal data. The NNT expresses the number of individuals who need to be treated to obtain one complementary pregnancy. In female infertility, the NNT of mild or moderate endometriosis was 8.4, and in anti-estrogens treatment of anovulation, it was 5.9. In tamoxifen treatment of idiopathic oligozoospermia, NNT was 3.9, and in antioxidant supplementation, it was 7.8. Treatment of varicocele yielded NNT of 6.3 and 6.8 after 1 year in multi- or single-centre trials, respectively, and NFS lowered the NNT after 3 months to 2.6. Adding NFS to the male partner increased the ongoing pregnancy rate by IVF with NNT of 8.3, and adding NFS to both partners reduced the NNT to 4.0. Although these results were obtained in heterogeneous trials and populations, it is suggested that the NNT should be useful for comparing the effectiveness of different modes of treatment of the infertile couple, and that complementary nutraceutical food supplementation may be beneficial.

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Condition tags

endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Dietary Supplements Infertility Infertility Adult Anovulation Anovulation Anovulation Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Estrogen Receptor Modulators Estrogen Receptor Modulators Female Fertilization in Vitro Humans Infertility Infertility Male

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Cites (2)

References (29)

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