Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 2, 2025
Fertility Preservation Through Oocyte Vitrification: Clinical and Laboratory Perspectives
Published on: September 16, 2021
Comparison In Vitro Fertilization Outcomes between DouStim and Minimal Stimulation Protocols in Poor Ovarian
Nasrin Saharkhiz1, Saghar Salehpoor1, Sedigheh Hosseini1
1Preventive Gynecology Research Center, Taleghani Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Background:
Various protocols have been approved to improve the response rate leading to successful fertilization in poor ovarian responders (PORs). The application of double ovarian stimulation (DuoStim) in the follicular and luteal phases of the same ovarian cycle has been shown as an intriguing option to achieve more oocyte retrievals in the shortest time. The aim of the current study is to compare the outcomes of different protocols, minimal stimulation (MS) and Duostim.
Materials And Methods:
This randomized clinical trial was performed on 42 in vitro fertilization (IVF) candidates with POR diagnosis. Patients were classified into two equal groups and treated with the DuoStim protocol and MS protocol. The IVF outcomes, including retrieved follicles, oocytes, metaphase II (MII) oocytes and embryos, were compared between these groups.
Results:
The patients' characteristics including age, anti-mullerian hormone (AMH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and antral follicle count (AFC) were collected and compared. It showed there was no significant difference between the two groups baseline characteristics (P>0.05). We observed that the DuoStim protocol resulted in a significantly higher score in comparison with the MS protocols , including the number of follicles (6.23 ± 2.93 vs. 1.77 ± 1.66, P<0.001), retrieved oocytes (3.86 ± 2.57 vs. 1.68 ± 1.58, P=0.002), MII oocytes (3.36 ± 2.42 vs. 1.27 ± 1.27, P=0.001) and obtained embryos (2.04 ± 1.64 vs. 0.77 ± 0.86, P=0.003).
Conclusion:
The DuoStim protocol is a favourable and time saving plan that is associated with more oocytes in a single stimulation cycle. The DuoStim protocol significantly can result in more frequent MII oocytes and embryos. We figured that the higher number of oocytes and embryos might have led to a higher rate of pregnancy (registration number: IRCT20200804048303N1).
