Effect of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Injection Before Frozen Embryo Transfer on Pregnancy Outcomes in Endometriosis-Associated Infertility

Yanbo Du, Lei Yan, Mei Sun, Yan Sheng, Sheng Yan, Xiufang Li, Zhenhua Feng, Rong Tang
Frontiers in medicine · 2020 · vol. 7 , pp. 592921 · doi:10.3389/fmed.2020.592921 · PMID:33381512 · PMC7768008 · W3111680212
article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 3 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This retrospective study found that human chorionic gonadotropin injection before frozen embryo transfer significantly increased the clinical pregnancy rate in women with endometriosis-associated infertility.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This retrospective cohort study evaluated whether intramuscular human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) given before progestin in a hormone replacement (HT) protocol for frozen embryo transfer (FET) improves pregnancy outcomes in 651 women with laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis-associated infertility (296 control vs 355 hCG), using FET data from 2009–2018. The hCG group received 8,000 IU hCG prior to progestin initiation, with otherwise similar HT and embryo transfer practices, and outcomes compared included clinical pregnancy, live birth, miscarriage timing, ectopic pregnancy, and related factors; the authors note a major limitation that EM stage was unclear because operative records were unavailable. Clinical pregnancy rate was higher with hCG (57.7% vs 49.0%, p=0.027), while live birth was numerically higher but not statistically significant (45.6% vs 38.5%, p=0.080), and miscarriage rates, ectopic pregnancy rate were not significantly different. Relevance to endometriosis: this paper is centrally about endometriosis-associated infertility and reports that hCG injection in an HT-FET regimen increases clinical pregnancy rate in women with endometriosis.

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Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in hormone replacement (HT) regime for frozen thawed embryo transfer in women with endometriosis (EM). Methods: We performed a retrospective, database-search, cohort study and included data on EM patients who underwent frozen embryo transfer (FET) between January 1, 2009 and August 31, 2018. According to the protocols for FET cycle, the patients were divided into two groups: control group ( n = 296) and hCG group ( n = 355). Clinical pregnancy rate, live birth rate, early abortion rate, late abortion rate, and ectopic pregnancy rate were compared between the two groups. Results: There was a significant increase in clinical pregnancy rate in the hCG group (57.7 vs. 49%, p = 0.027) compared with the control group. The live birth rate in the hCG group (45.6 vs. 38.5%, p = 0.080) was also elevated, but this difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: hCG administration in HT regime for FET increases the pregnancy rate in women with EM.

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endometriosisinfertility

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