Basal serum testosterone levels correlate with ovarian reserve and ovarian response in cycling women undergoing in vitro fertilization

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the association between basal serum testosterone levels and in vitro fertilization (IVF) parameters in cycling women. A retrospective cohort study was performed at a clinical IVF center, and 495 women with regular menstruation were enrolled. Serum testosterone levels were measured before the start of IVF treatment cycle. We found that basal serum testosterone levels were negatively associated with female age and FSH/LH ratios. In contrast, we found a positive correlation between serum testosterone levels and the number of oocytes and available embryos. However, there was no significant association between testosterone levels and pregnancy outcome. Our results suggest that basal serum testosterone levels were significantly related to certain classic indicators of ovarian reserve, such as age and FSH/LH ratios. Increased testosterone levels improved ovarian response in cycling women, but they fail to predict pregnancy and miscarriage rate.

Chinese abstract

本实验旨在研究体外受精（IVF）周期中基础血清睾酮水平与IVF各项参数间的关系。在临床IVF中心招募495名月经规律的女性进行回顾性队列研究。IVF周期开始前检测血清睾酮水平，我们发现基础血清睾酮水平与女性年龄和FSH/LH呈负相关。相反，我们发现血清睾酮水平和卵泡数、可获取胚胎数呈正比。但是，睾酮水平与妊娠结局无明显相关性。我们的结果说明基础血清睾酮水平与卵巢储备功能的经典指标，如年龄、FSH/LH。睾酮水平增加可改善卵巢反应性，但不能预测妊娠率和流产率。

• Ovarian reserve
• ovarian response
• testosterone

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interests. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper. The work was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (2014A030313182), National Natural Science Foundation of China (81100470), the Young Teacher Training Project of Sun Yat-Sen University (12ykpy24) and the Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine of Guangdong Province (2012A06140003).