Effect of Intrauterine Injection of Hcg Before ET on Clinical Outcomes in IVF/ICSI Cycles

Plain-language summary

Subfertility is the inability to conceive after 12 months of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. Around 15% of couples suffer from subfertility. As a treatment for subfertility, Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) have been a choice for subfertile couples. In Egypt in 2010, Pregnancy Rate was calculated to be 36.2%, Live Birth Rate to be 25.7%. Implantation is the process by which the embryo adheres to the wall of the uterus. Endometrial receptivity plays the most important role for successful implantation after embryo quality. It is estimated that up to 70% of early pregnancy losses are due to failure of implantation. Despite extensive research, the embryo-maternal dialogue that orchestrates the implantation process is still not fully understood. Much effort has been done in the last decades to detect factors affecting Implantation and improve endometrial receptivity. Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) is a placental glycoprotein hormone that required to maintain pregnancy. Recent research data demonstrates that hCG is secreted very early by the embryo before implantation to facilitate it. hCG has been proved to cause attraction of inflammatory cells, promote angiogenesis, regulate chemical mediators at the endometrium. These effects proceed the classical role of hCG during pregnancy and could be a directly involved in and facilitating the implantation process. Studies have been conducted to study the effect of injection of different concentrations of hCG inside the uterine cavity before Embryo Transfer (ET) to improve endometrial receptivity and outcomes of In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) or Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) cycles. A recent systematic review was conducted on 12 studies performing intrauterine injection of different doses of hCG before ET. Results of this study showed that there is increased pregnancy outcome after injection of intrauterine 500 IU of hCG. The study recommended a definitive large clinical trial with live birth as the primary outcome. There was no evidence that miscarriage was influenced by intrauterine hCG administration, irrespective of embryo stage at transfer or dose of intrauterine hCG. Aim of the study: To detect whether intrauterine injection of hCG before ET improves clinical outcomes in IVF/ICSI cycles.

Who can participate

What they're measuring

Trial details