Routine pituitary suppression with leuprolide before ovarian stimulation for oocyte retrieval

Pituitary suppression with leuprolide acetate (LA) was used before and during ovarian stimulation with human menopausal gonadotropins in 45 consecutive women having their first cycle of in vitro fertilization embryo transfer (IVF-ET). As anticipated, a low rate of cycle cancellation (6.7%) was necessary for poor responses. Follicles were allowed to develop to a larger diameter than with our prior protocol without LA. On the day of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), 11.5 + 0.7 follicles of at least 1.0 cm were visualized; 11.7 + 0.9 oocytes were retrieved; 67.5% fertilized and 6.7 + 0.6 normal embryos were available for transfer. Of the 3.4 + 0.1 embryos transferred per patient, 24.6% implanted. The rates of clinical pregnancy per retrieval and per stimulation were 54% and 47%, respectively, of which 23.8% aborted. Routine use of LA resulted in a highly efficient level of ongoing pregnancy per initiated cycle, and therefore may produce a superior first cycle for IVF-ET.