Patient evaluation of the redesigned follitropin alfa pen injector

ABSTRACT

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the overall impressions of learning and subsequent use of the redesigned GONAL-f® (follitropin alfa) pen injector by women with recent or current infertility requiring assisted reproductive technologies (ART) or in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Methods: This was a simulated-use study including 86 women with infertility and 30 fertility nurses. Nurses trained the women on the use of the redesigned pen. The opinions of the women on the pen injector were collected during a questionnaire interview. Fertility nurse opinions on patient anxiety were collected before training.

Results: The pen injector was considered easy to learn to use and easy to use, particularly setting the dose and reading the number on the dial. After training, most women felt confident they could self-administer medication without further training. Most women would recommend the redesigned pen injector to friends and family requiring IVF treatment. Overall, fertility nurses overestimated how anxious the women would be when using the pen injector.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated that both IVF/ART-experienced and -naïve women with infertility found the redesigned pen injector easy to learn to use and to use.

KEYWORDS:

• GONAL-f
• follitropin alfa
• pen injector
• ART
• IVF
• patients

Declaration of interest

J Schertz is an employee of EMD Serono, a business of Merck KGaA, Germany. H Worton is an employee of Aequus Research. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Writing assistance was utilized in the preparation of this manuscript, it was funded by Merck KGaA and carried out by Alexander Jones (inScience Communications) and Steven Goodrick (inScience Communications).

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.