A variety of regimens have been employed, including the use of increased gonadotropin doses, low dose gonadotropin-releasing hormoneagonists or antagonists, flare regimes, adjunctive growth hormone, minimal ovarian stimulation with clomiphene citrate, and natural cycle IVF. However, the ideal stimulation regimen for poor responders is currently unknown. The Cochrane review of poor responder interventions concluded that no Povidone iodine particular treatment offered clear benefit, or could be recommended. The management of poor responders therefore remains a significant challenge in assisted reproduction. In the last few years, a number of studies have suggested that dehydroepiandrosteronetreatment may be effective in poor responders. DHEA is now widely used in poor responders; recently, a world-wide survey showed that 26% of IVF clinicians in 45 countries add DHEA as an adjuvant to IVF treatment protocols in women with poor ovarian response. However, clinical evidence for DHEA on improvement of ovarian response and IVF outcome is still limited, the validity of the results of the earlier studies, especially the varied inclusion criteria, is a subject of debate. Recently, the Consensus Group for the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryologydeveloped a new definition, the Bologna criteria, to help assigning more uniform patient groups in future clinical trials. However, no studies have been performed study to evaluate the potential effects of DHEA supplementation according to these standards. This study is the first to examine the effect of DHEA in poor ovarian responder patients that fulfill the Bologna criteria. According to our results, although the oocyte and embryo numbers were similar between the two groups, DHEA administration was associated with significantly higher implantation and ongoing PRs. DHEA is a mild androgen, produced as an intermediate step by the adrenal glandsand ovariesduring steroidogenesis. The circulating levels of DHEA decline markedly with advancing age. It is a very important prehormone for sex steroidogenesis. In the ovarian follicle, DHEA is converted to androstenedione and estrone, the source of testosterone and estradiol according to the two-cell theory. Casson first speculated that exogenous administration of DHEA could restore ovarian follicular sex steroidogenesis in elderly women. Since then, a few controlled studies with small Coptisine-chloride sample sizes have reported the benefits of DHEA administration in improving ovarian response and IVF outcome. However, since women with significant diminished ovarian reserve usually are reluctant to enter prospectively randomized studies that may assign them to placebo, because of the limited time remaining to conceive with use of their own oocytes, nearly all DHEA data represented lower levels of evidence. The first RCT study with small sample size regarding DHEA administration before IVF in poor responders was conducted by Wiser and associates, who showed a significantly higher cumulative live birth rate among the DHEA group. In contrast, another recent RCT study with larger sample size failed to show that DHEA supplementation enhances IVF-ICSI outcome in women with poor ovarian reserve. The meta-analysis which evaluated the effect of adjuvant androgensor androgen-modulating agentsin previous poor responders has failed to demonstrate any significant difference in the ongoing PRs.
There is insufficient evidence to support the use of specific interventions to improve IVF treatment
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