Objective: To investigate the relationship between serum progesterone level at the day with human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) administration and pregnant outcome from in in-vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET).
Methods: From Mar. 2002 to Apr. 2007, 786 cycles with serum progesterone measurement on the day of hCG administration for final oocyte maturation in IVF were analyzed retrospectively in Reproductive Medicine Center in First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. All stimulations were down-regulated with gronadotrophin release hormone agonist (GnRH-a) in both long protocols and short protocols before gonadotrophin stimulation. When the thresholds of serum progesterone were set at 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 8.5 and 9.0 nmol/L, respectively. If the level of progesterone was less than the thresholds, those patients were in lower progesterone group, on the contrary, more than the threshold value, those patients were in higher progesterone group. The laboratory results and the clinical outcomes between all patients at lower and higher progesterone group at different thresholds value were analyzed.
Results: The rate of normal fertilization, quality embryos, successful implantation, chemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy and live birth did not exhibit remarkable difference between patients with higher and lower serum progesterone level at multiple thresholds on the day of hCG administration in the 786 cycles (P > 0.05). However, when the thresholds of serum progesterone were at 8.5 and 9.0 nmol/L, early abortion rates of 27.3% (3/11) and 3/7 in higher progesterone group were significantly higher than 8.8% (26/297) and 8.6% (26/301) in lower progesterone group (P < 0.05). And the total abortion rates of 3/7 in higher progesterone group were significantly higher than 11.0% (34/301) in lower progesterone group when the thresholds of serum progesterone were 9.0 nmol/L (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: This study did not prove the correlationship between progesterone level at the day with hCG administration and the probability of clinical pregnancy or live birth. However, early abortion rates or the total abortion rates were associated with higher progesterone level when the thresholds of serum progesterone were at 8.5 nmol/L or 9.0 nmol/L.