Benefits of Oral Contraceptive Pill Pretreatment in Endometriosis for IVF/ICSI-ET: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Benefits of Oral Contraceptive Pill Pretreatment in Endometriosis for IVF/ICSI-ET: A Retrospective Cohort Study Keywords: Endometriosis, oral contraceptive pills, IVF/ICSI-ET, pregnancyAbstract Pretreatment with oral contraceptive pills (OCP) has been widely applied in IVF/ICSI –ET treatment. However, it remains unclear whether OCP influences pregnancy rate of fresh cycle and subsequent cumulative pregnancy rate in patients with endometriosis. In this retrospective study, a total of 512 first attempt IVF/ICSI cycles of patients with endometriosis were included and divided into two groups: the study group included 216 cycles of patients undergoing pretreatment with OCP before pituitary suppression and ovarian stimulation, while 296 cycles of patients without pretreatment were considered as control. The ovarian stimulation performance and pregnancy results were compared between the two groups. Patients with OCP pretreatment required shorter duration, a lower dosage of gonadotropins, but obtained higher E2 level and more retrieved oocytes. Patients in the two groups obtained comparable fertilization rate, cleavage rate, but the number and rate of day 3 high-quality embryos were higher in OCP-pretreated patients. No differences were found in IVF/ICSI-ET outcomes, in terms of implantation rate, clinical pregnancy rates, live birth pregnancy rate, and cumulative pregnancy rate. In addition, despite the lack of statistical significance, a trend toward higher clinical pregnancy rate in a fresh cycle and cumulative pregnancy rate was found in OCP pretreated patients. It should be recommended that patients with endometriosis take OCP pretreatment before ovarian stimulation, since it offers advantages of lower cost and higher embryo-quality, and does not negatively influence pregnancy rates. Chakrabartty et al., International Current Pharmaceutical Journal, July 2017, 6(8): 44-48 170 236 Downloads Published How to Cite Issue Section License Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms: - The journal holds copyright and publishes the work under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. - Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. - Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).