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Intramuscular vs intravaginal natural progesterone in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer
E Papaleo1, L Quaranta, M Molgora
1Centro Natalità, Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy. papaleo.enrico@hsr.it
Objective:
To compare the effectiveness of intramuscular (IM) and intravaginal (IV) progesterone for luteal phase support, in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer cycles (IVF-ET).
Design:
retrospective, observational, case-control study
Setting:
Centro Natalità, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy, from July 2007 to June 2009.
Patient(S):
172 A-GnRH down-regulated IVF-ET cycles in patients with age < 40 years.
Intervention(S):
Luteal phase support with IM progesterone (50 mg daily) or IV progesterone (90 mg daily).
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, miscarriage, ongoing pregnancy rates and patient's acceptability.
Results:
IM progesterone conferred more benefit compared with IV progesterone in terms of ongoing pregnancy rate (24.4% vs 12.7%; P < 0.05).
Conclusions:
In standard IVF cycles, our data showed that IM progesterone appears to be more effective at providing luteal support, thus rendering with IV progesterone.
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