Growth hormone supplementation during ovarian stimulation improves oocyte and embryo outcomes in IVF/PGT-A cycles of women who are not poor responders

Amanda Skillern, Whitney Leonard, Jordyn Pike, Winifred Mak

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the effect of human growth hormone (GH) supplementation during ovarian stimulation in women undergoing IVF/PGT-A cycles, who do not meet the Bologna criteria for poor ovarian response (POR). Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of 41 women with suboptimal outcomes in their first cycle of IVF/PGT-A including lower than expected number of MII oocytes, poor blastulation rate, and/or lower than expected number of euploid embryos for their age, who underwent a subsequent IVF/PGT-A cycle with the same fixed dose gonadotropin protocol and adjuvant GH treatment. Daily cotreatment with GH started with first gonadotrophin injection. The IVF cycle outcomes were compared between the control and GH cycle using the Wilcoxon-Signed Rank test. Results: The total number of biopsied blastocysts (mean ± SD; 2.0 ± 1.6 vs 3.5 ± 3.2, p = 0.009) and euploid embryos (0.8 ± 1.0 vs 2.0 ± 2.8, p = 0.004) were significantly increased in the adjuvant GH cycle compared to the control cycle. The total number of MII oocytes also trended to be higher in the GH cycle (10.2 ± 6.3 vs 12.1 ± 8.3, p = 0.061). The overall blastulation and euploidy rate did not differ between the control and treatment cycle. Conclusion: Our study uniquely investigated the use of adjuvant GH in IVF/PGT-A cycles in women without POR and without a priori suspicion for poor outcome based on their clinical parameters. Our study presents preliminary evidence that GH supplementation in these women is beneficial and is associated with an increased number of blastocysts for biopsy and greater number of euploid embryos for transfer.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1055-1060
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics
Volume38
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Growth hormone
  • IVF/PGT-A
  • In-vitro fertilization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Genetics(clinical)
  • Genetics
  • Obstetrics and Gynecology
  • Reproductive Medicine
  • Developmental Biology

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