Nakao K, Kuroda K, Horikawa T, Moriyama A, Juen H, Itakura A, Watanabe H, Takamizawa S, Ojiro Y, Nakagawa K, Sugiyama R. Therapeutic effects of an oral gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor antagonist, relugolix, on preventing premature ovulation in mild ovarian stimulation for IVF.
Reprod Med Biol 2021;
21:e12422. [PMID:
34938146 PMCID:
PMC8656665 DOI:
10.1002/rmb2.12422]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2021] [Revised: 09/26/2021] [Accepted: 10/07/2021] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Purpose
Can relugolix, a novel oral gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor (GnRH) antagonist, function as an alternative ovulation inhibitor to GnRH antagonist injections?
Methods
This single-center, cross-sectional retrospective study compared premature ovulation rates and clinical outcomes in IVF treatment after mild ovarian stimulation with 40 mg of relugolix (relugolix group) or 0.25-mg injections of ganirelix acetate or cetrorelix acetate (injection group) between March 2019 and January 2020. Of 247 infertile women (256 IVF cycles) aged ≤42 years, 223 women (230 cycles) were evaluated. In the relugolix and injection groups, we compared 104 and 85 cycles after GnRH antagonist use before the LH surge (LH levels <10 mIU/ml) and 22 and 19 cycles during the LH surge (LH levels ≥10 mIU/ml), respectively.
Results
Before the LH surge, the ovulation rates in the two groups were very low (p = 0.838), however; during the LH surge, the cycles using relugolix had a high ovulation rate of 40.9% compared with no ovulation in the injection group (p = 0.002). There were no significant differences in embryo culture findings and pregnancy outcomes between the two groups.
Conclusions
Although relugolix had a high ovulation suppressive effect, when the LH surge occurred, its effect was insufficient.
Collapse