Less Aggressive IVF Treats Infertility
Live Birth Rate Similar Over Time With 1 Embryo Transfer, With Fewer Multiple Births
March 1, 2007 -- A less aggressive approach to in vitro fertilization is easier on the patient, carries far less risk of multiple births, and is virtually as effective over time as the approach favored in the U.S., a study from Holland reports.
In the study, 92 of the 205 women undergoing a so-called "mild IVF" gave birth; vs. 102 of the 199 women who had more aggressive IVF treatment.
The women who had what researchers termed “mild IVF” were treated with lower doses of hormones than women who had aggressive ovarian stimulation, using high doses of hormones. They also had one embryo transferred per IVF cycle instead of two.
Over the course of a year, the two approaches resulted in a strikingly similar number of pregnancies leading to live births.
The women who had the less aggressive treatment did end up undergoing more IVF cycles during the year-long trial -- an average of three attempts instead of two, according to the researchers.
But they did not report more discomfort or anxiety as a result of the extra procedures.
And less than 1% had multiple births, compared to 13% of the women in the traditional treatment group.
“We showed that outcomes can be the same with this more gentle approach, where not so much is riding on a single treatment cycle,” study researcher Nick S. Macklon, MD, PhD, tells WebMD. “The all-or-nothing approach is more stressful for the patient and it results in more multiple births.”
IVF Lite
The Dutch study included 199 women treated with standard IVF, which included aggressive ovarian stimulation and two embryo transfers per cycle.
Another 205 women got the less aggressive IVF, which included mild ovarian stimulation with lower hormone doses and a single embryo transfer per cycle.
A year after entering the trial, conducted by Macklon, Bart Fauser, MD, and colleagues from Holland’s University Medical Centre, Utrecht, a total 444 IVF cycles had been performed in the mild IVF group, compared to 325 cycles in the aggressive treatment group.
A total of 43.4% of the pregnancies that resulted from the less aggressive treatment led to live births, compared to 44.7% of pregnancies resulting from traditional IVF.