Soft versus Conventional Protocol in Ovarian Stimulation in Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection Cycles for Poor Responders: A randomized clinical trial

Abstract

Background: Mild(soft, minimal) protocols have been proposed as an alternative to the classical protocols , a controlled ovarian stimulation is defined as “soft” either when (a) Gonadotrophins (Gn) are given at a lower dose and/or for a short period together with a GnRH-antagonist, or when (b) oral compounds (e.g. anti-estrogens) are used alone or in combination with Gn and GnRH-antagonists. Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare between soft and conventional protocol in ovarian stimulation for poor responders women undergoing Intracytoplasmic sperm injection procedure(ICSI). Patients and methods: This study is A randomized clinical trial, carried out at Assisted Reproduction Unit, Qena University hospital, South Valley University, Egypt, on 120poor responder women undergoing ICSI divided randomly into two groups:(Group 1): included 60 patients received soft ovarian stimulation protocol, (Group 2): included 60 patients received conventional ovarian stimulation protocol. Results: In comparison between the two groups regarding cancellation rate ,chemical and clinical pregnancy were comparable with no statistically significance between soft group and conventional group. Conclusion: This analysis presents strong evidence in favor of soft stimulation in intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles for poor responders, which therefore should currently be considered a treatment of choice for patients requiring intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles for poor responder's treatment.

Keywords

• soft; conventional; poor responder; icsi