Review finds recombinant FSH is more effective therapy for inducing ovulation.

2004 NOV 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Recombinant follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) is more effective than urinary FSH therapy for inducing ovulation, concludes a recent review article.

"Infertility affects approximately 10%-15% of couples. To enhance the chances of conception, assisted reproductive techniques (ART) have been improved and, in the last 5 years, thousands of babies have been delivered after in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection procedures," wrote A. Palagiano, University of Naples, and colleagues.

"To obtain an appropriate and controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH), clinicians have introduced many drug protocols based on gonadotropin releasing hormone agonists or antagonists for pituitary down-regulation and FSH or human menopausal gonadotropin for ovarian stimulation," the review authors continued.

"Currently FSH is the most common drug used for ovulation induction," they said. "It is a glycosylated protein with a molecular weight of 28,000-30,000 Da, normally secreted by the anterior pituitary gland. The recombinant preparations of follicle stimulation hormone (r-FSH) are characterized by a higher level of purity, reduced batch to batch variability, and no risk of infection."

Palagiano and coauthors had set out in their review to "establish the efficacy of different trials based on the use of r-FSH and urinary FSH (u-FSH) comparing published data from randomized studies on the ovulation induction for assisted reproductive techniques [ART]."

"Unfortunately," they said, "we did not find any paper with sufficient power to ...