NCT02145819

Optimal Planning of a Day 3 Cryopreserved(Frozen)-Thawed Embryo Transfer in a Natural Cycle With hCG Administration or After Spontaneous LH Peak?

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 4
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 240 (actual)
• Sponsor: Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years – 39 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The aim of the study is to determine whether spontaneous LH peak is superior to human chorionic gonadotropin before a transfer of a day 3 frozen embryo.

Detailed description

For surplus embryos after fresh IVF-cycles, cryopreservation has become common medical practice. These frozen embryos are mostly replaced in an artificial cycle with exogenous estrogen and progesterone or in a natural cycle. Often, hCG is administered as an ovulation induction agent for scheduling purposes. Successful implantation requires a co-ordinated series of events allowing a timely dialogue between a receptive endometrium and the intrusive blastocyst . The period of receptivity is thought to be 3 days in human. It is suggested that blastocyst apposition begins about day LH+6 and is completed by day LH+10 In general, the aim is to transfer the embryo during the 'window of implantation', what is defined as the period during which the uterus is receptive for implantation of the free-lying blastocyst. This has been a subject of debate since many years. A prospective study by Fatemi et al. (2010) revealed a significantly higher ongoing pregnancy rate after transferring frozen-thawed embryos in natural cycles with a spontaneous LH peak compared with natural cycles controlled by hCG for final oocyte maturation and ovulation (31.1% vs. 14.3%, respectively). In this trial, FrET (frozen embryo transfer) was planned 5 days after the LH surge or 5 days after the administration of 5000IU of hCG. In order to optimize the synchronization in the hCG group, and therefore enhance the pregnancy rates, the aim is to plan a FrET 6 days after hCG administration instead of 5 days. The rationale behind is that day 3 frozen embryos are thawed the day before embryo transfer, which means they are already at day 4 of the embryonic development.

Conditions

• Supervision of Pregnancy Resulting From In-vitro Fertilization

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	hCG
OTHER	LH peak

Timeline

• Start date: 2014-01-01
• Primary completion: 2019-09-01
• Completion: 2019-09-01
• First posted: 2014-05-23
• Last updated: 2019-09-27

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Belgium