AUTHOR=Zhu Jinliang , Wang Ying , Chen Lixue , Liu Ping , Li Rong , Qiao Jie 

TITLE=Clinical Outcomes of Frozen-Thawed Embryos Generated From Growth Hormone Stimulation in Expected Poor Responders

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Endocrinology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2020.608225

DOI=10.3389/fendo.2020.608225

ISSN=1664-2392

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Objective</title><p>This study aimed to elucidate whether growth hormone (GH) adjuvant therapy significantly improves clinical outcomes for expected poor responders in frozen-thawed cycles.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>Expected poor responders undergoing controlled ovarian stimulation with or without GH adjuvant therapy, and subsequently underwent the first frozen-thawed transfer from January 2017 to March 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Maternal age was matched at a 1:1 ratio between the GH and control groups. All statistical analyses were performed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>A total of 376 frozen-thawed cycles comprised the GH and control groups at a ratio of 1:1. The number of oocytes (7.13 ± 3.93 <italic>vs.</italic> 5.89 ± 3.33; p = 0.001), two pronuclei zygotes (4.66 ± 2.76 <italic>vs.</italic> 3.99 ± 2.31; p = 0.011), and day 3 available embryos (3.86 ± 2.62 <italic>vs.</italic> 3.26 ± 2.04; p = 0.014) obtained in the GH group was significantly higher than the control group in corresponding fresh cycles. The clinical pregnancy (30.3 <italic>vs.</italic> 31.0%; p = 0.883), implantation (25.3 <italic>vs.</italic> 26.2%; p = 0.829), early abortion (16.1 <italic>vs.</italic> 15.8%; p = 0.967), and live birth rates (20.6 <italic>vs.</italic> 20.8%; p=0.980) were comparable between the two groups in frozen-thawed cycles. Improvement in the clinical pregnancy (46.8 <italic>vs.</italic> 32.1%; p = 0.075), early miscarriage (10.3 <italic>vs.</italic> 20.0%; p = 0.449), and live birth rates (35.7 <italic>vs.</italic> 18.9%; p = 0.031) was found in the subgroup of poor ovarian responders (PORs) with good quality blastocyst transfer (≥4BB) following GH co-treatment.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusions</title><p>GH administration would increase oocyte quantity and quality, in turn, improve live birth rate in PORs.</p></sec>