Progesterone Supplementation in Frozen Embryo Transfer Cycles
Status:
Unknown status
Trial end date:
2019-07-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Recurrent implantation failure (RIF) occurs after women undergo in vitro fertilization and
have multiple embryos transferred but no resulting pregnancies. RIF is a very challenging
clinical entity for the reproductive physician and the patient. In fact, there is not even an
agreed upon definition in the medical community. Many potential causes have been investigated
over the past several years but no clear answer has emerged. Interest has recently turned to
the endometrium, or the lining of the uterus. Studies have shown that the genes that are
turned on in the endometrium vary based on how long this tissue has been exposed to
progesterone, an important hormone that prepares the uterine lining for implantation of the
growing embryo. In some women, it seems that they require longer periods of progesterone
exposure to reach the same state of readiness. We hypothesize that an even larger proportion
of women in RIF population will require longer treatments with progesterone.
In this study, we will randomize women with RIF who are about to undergo a frozen embryo
transfer to one of two groups. The first group will have their embryo transfer done on the
standard sixth day of progesterone treatment. The other group will have their transfer done
on the seventh day of progesterone. We will be comparing the clinical pregnancy rate of the
two groups as well as the live birth rate and miscarriage rate. We expect that extending the
progesterone treatment by one day will increase the pregnancy rate of women with RIF.