[Combined clomiphene-dexamethasone therapy in cases with resistance to clomiphene (author's transl)]

Abstract

Combined clomiphene-dexamethasone treatment was applied to 13 patients with clomiphene-resistant anovulation which had been caused by androgenic hyperactivity of ovarian or adrenal origin. The women, following induced withdrawal bleeding, received 200 mg/die clomiphene over five days, from the fifth through the ninth days of their cycles, plus 2 mg/die dexamethasone over ten days, from the fifth to 14th days of cycle, after they had failed to conceive in response to clomiphene alone administered in rising doses up to 200 mg/die. Nine pregnancies were successfully induced by that treatment. Two of them ended in abortion and one in premature twin delivery. Combined clomiphene-dexamethasone treatment is recommended for clomiphene-resistant cases with ovarian or adrenal hyperandrogenism, particularly for patients with polycystic ovaries (Stein-Leventhal syndrome).