Effects of progesterone variation on IVF Progesterone variation during controlled ovarian stimulation: effects on in vitro results

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of the progesterone variation (PV) between early progesterone and preovulatory progesterone on pregnancy rate (PR), number of oocytes, and embryo quality. Three hundred and thirty-eight cycles of in vitro fertilisation were included and progesterone was measured on 5th day of stimulation GnRH as well as on the day of induction of ovulation. Fresh embryo transfer (ET) on the second–third day after follicular puncture was made in 152/338 cycles, with positive pregnancies in 61/152 (40%). In the cycles in which ET was cancelled (186/338) higher levels of estradiol and P2 were detected, as well as greater PV and number of oocytes obtained than those made in with fresh transfer. A greater PV was not associated with a worse clinical PR but with a minor embryo quality in the group of 35–37 years old patients.

Impact Statement

• What is already known on this subject? Preovulatory progesterone (P2) elevation has been linked to worse results in IVF cycles. It has also been described been reported that there is a lower pregnancy rate (PR) in patients with high progesterone in the early follicular phase (P1). In our study, we measured P1 and P2 to evaluate the possible repercussion of progesterone variation (PV) (ratio of P2 to P1) on PR, a variable that has not previously been analysed.

• What do the results of this study add? Negative correlation between preovulatory progesterone and embryo quality was found, according to the literature. In the present study, a negative significant correlation between PV and embryo quality was also found, however, only in the group of 35–37 years old women.

• What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? This could indicate that a rapid increase in progesterone levels after the early follicular phase is related to a lower quality of the obtained embryos, although further studies are required to achieve greater statistical significance.

Keywords:

• Preovulatory progesterone
• early progesterone
• in vitro fertilisation
• clinical pregnancy rate
• embryo quality

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.