Growth hormone co-treatment for ovulation induction may enhance conception in the co-treatment and succeeding cycles, in clonidine negative but not clonidine positive patients

Abstract

To investigate the effect of co-treatment with growth hormone (GH) for ovulation induction with human menopausal gonadotrophins (HMG) on conception, we compared the pregnancy rate and response to co-treatment with GH versus HMG/human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) alone in a prospective, randomized, cross-over protocol of ovulation induction for either in-vivo or in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The main outcome measures were the amount of gonadotrophin used and conception. Co-treatment with GH was associated with a reduction of approximately 30% in gonadotrophin requirement. In 24 clonidine negative patients 14 pregnancies were achieved (58.3%) either in the GH/HMG/HCG cycle or in the succeeding one. GH co-treatment did not generate any pregnancy in eight clonidine positive patients. We conclude that growth hormone may increase the pregnancy rate when combined with HMG/HCG for ovulation induction, not only in the co-treatment cycle but also in the succeeding one. The beneficial, synergistic effect of GH co-treatment was detected in clonidine negative but not in clonidine positive infertile patients.