Efficacy of treatment for unexplained infertility

D S Guzick, DavidS Guzick, M W Sullivan, M. Sullivan, G D Adamson, G. David Adamson, M I Cedars, MarcelleI Cedars, RichardJ Falk, R J Falk, E P Peterson, EdwinP Peterson, MichaelP Steinkampf, M P Steinkampf
Fertility and Sterility · 1998 · vol. 70(2) , pp. 207–213 · doi:10.1016/s0015-0282(98)00177-0 · PMID:9696208 · W1987639062
article OA: hybrid CC0 ⤵ 51 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This retrospective analysis compared pregnancy rates and costs for various unexplained infertility treatments, finding clomiphene citrate + IUI to be the most cost-effective option.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of alternative treatments for unexplained infertility. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of 45 published reports. SETTING: Clinical practices. PATIENT(S): Couples who met criteria for unexplained infertility. Women with Stage I or Stage II endometriosis were included. INTERVENTION(S): Observation; clomiphene citrate (CC); gonadotropins (hMG); IUI; and GIFT and IVF. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Clinical pregnancy rate. RESULT(S): Combined pregnancy rates per initiated cycle, adjusted for study quality, were as follows: no treatment = 1.3%-4.1%; IUI = 3.8%; CC = 5.6%; CC + IUI = 8.3%; hMG = 7.7%; hMG + IUI = 17.1%; IVF = 20.7%; GIFT = 27.0%. The estimated cost per pregnancy was $10,000 for CC + IUI, $17,000 for hMG + IUI, and $50,000 for IVF. CONCLUSION(S): Clomiphene citrate + IUI is a cost-effective treatment for unexplained infertility. If this treatment fails, hMG + IUI and assisted reproduction are efficacious therapeutic options.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Infertility Cost-Benefit Analysis Female Fertilization in Vitro Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer Humans Infertility Infertility Insemination, Artificial Pregnancy Pregnancy Rate Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic Retrospective Studies Superovulation

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (68)

Cited by (50)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:10:40.754221+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK