Evaluation of the effect of GnRH agonist administration in the Poor Responder patients before IVF/ICSI cycle

Abstract

Despite advancements in assisted reproductive technologies, poor ovarian response (POR) continues to be recognized as a significant obstacle in the success of in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF-ICSI) procedures. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of administering gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRH-ag) in the cycle preceding IVF-ICSI in patients with POR, as defined by the Bologna criteria. Material and Methods: Participants were divided into intervention and control groups, the former receiving GnRH-ag. Primary measured outcomes included the total number of oocytes retrieved, the number of mature oocytes, the quantity and quality of resultant embryos, and pregnancy rates. Following the acquisition of required variables for each group, pertinent statistical tests such as the Independent t-Test and Chi-square test were employed for data interpretation. Furthermore, potential confounding variables like sperm analysis results, maternal age, and paternal age were evaluated in both groups to assess their impact on the final outcomes of the study. Results: Statistically significant difference was observed in the total number of oocytes, , and the number of embryos (p < 0.05) between the intervention and control groups. However, interestingly, there was no significant improvement in the pregnancy rates, quality of oocytes and quality of resultant embryos in the intervention group compared to the control group (p > 0.05). Statistical analysis of the confounding factors revealed that sperm analysis results, maternal age, paternal age, dosage and duration of FSH and hMG usage, as well as maternal BMI, did not present a significant difference between the two groups and did not individually impact the final outcomes of the study, although their integrated analysis may attenuate the intervention's effect on fertility enhancement.