Effects of oral contraceptives and metformin on the outcome of in vitro maturation in infertile women with polycystic ovary syndrome.
Abstract Objective: To evaluate the effects of oral contraceptives and metformin on the outcome of in vitro maturation (IVM) in infertile women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).


METHODS
This is a retrospective study of 108 women with PCOS, subject to 152 cycles of IVM treatment. The study was held at the Reproductive Medicine Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, People's Republic of China. Before entering IVM treatment, 54 patients who received oral contraceptive pill (marvelon, 0.15 mg desogestrel, and 0.03 mg ethinylestradiol), one tablet every day, and metformin 500 mg twice or three times per day were defined as the pretreated group, and another 64 patients who were not administered any drugs as the control group. The main outcome measures were the rates of oocyte maturation, fertilization, cleavage, miscarriage, clinical pregnancy, and live birth.


RESULTS
There were no significant differences between the two groups in the rates of oocyte maturation, fertilization, cleavage, and clinical pregnancy (p > 0.05). A significantly lower miscarriage rate was obtained in the pretreated group than in the control group (16.13% vs 4.0%, p < 0.01). The live birth rate per embryo transfer seemed to be higher in the pretreated group than in the control group (37.70% vs 30.38%, p = 0.363), but was not statistically significant.


CONCLUSIONS
Pretreatment with oral contraceptives and metformin improved the outcome of IVM related to the miscarriage rate and possibly also live birth rate.
Zhao
Jun-Zhao
JZ
The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China. joyce671128@163.com
Lin
Jin-Ju
JJ
Yang
Hai-Yan
HY
Zhang
Wei
W
Huang
Xue-Feng
XF
Huang
Yin-Ping
YP
D000328:Adult; D003276:Contraceptives, Oral / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D006801:Humans; D059471:In Vitro Oocyte Maturation Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000628:therapy*; D008597:Menstrual Cycle / Q000502:physiology; D008687:Metformin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D054315:Oocyte Retrieval / Q000379:methods; D011085:Polycystic Ovary Syndrome / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020554:Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D003276:Contraceptives, Oral; D008687:Metformin