Infertility Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Infertility, including details on male and female infertility, treatment, causes, pregnancy.

Effect of progesterone supplementation in early pregnancy on the pregnancy outcome after in vitro fertilization.

Proctor A, Hurst BS, Marshburn PB, Matthews ML

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.

A retrospective cohort study was performed to evaluate IVF clinical pregnancy rates and livebirth rates between patients receiving progesterone supplementation through the first trimester of pregnancy (first trimester protocol) at 12 weeks vs. discontinuation after a positive beta-hCG test 2 weeks after retrieval (luteal protocol) at 4 weeks of pregnancy. A similar rate of clinical pregnancies occurred at 7 weeks (81.8% luteal protocol vs. 85.8% first trimester protocol; P=.49) and for livebirth rates (76.8% luteal protocol vs. 75.0% first trimester protocol; P=.80), but a trend toward a higher rate of pregnancy loss after 7 weeks in the first trimester protocol group occurred (15.5% vs. 4.4%; P=.06), indicating that first trimester progesterone supplementation may support early pregnancy through 7 weeks by delaying miscarriage but does not improve livebirth rates.

Published 1 May 2006 in Fertil Steril, 85(5): 1550-2.
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