Experts Urge Clinics to Consider "Natural Cycle" in vitro Fertilization.

2001 FEB 15 - (NewsRx.com) -- A team of United Kingdom fertility experts wants in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics to consider taking advantage of a woman's natural cycle during infertility treatment instead of routinely using drugs to stimulate ovaries into producing extra eggs.

A study has found that for the majority of women the chances of pregnancy are just as good if doctors rely on the woman's natural menstrual cycle. The researchers' view is that, in 60% to 70% of cases, a series of treatment cycles without using ovarian stimulation would be safer, less stressful and mean fewer multiple births. It also costs only a fifth of the price of current practice and would bring IVF within the reach of more childless couples worldwide and enable countries that state fund IVF to help more women.

The report was published in the February 2001 issue of Human Reproduction ("Cumulative conception and live birth rates in natural (unstimulated) IVF cycles," Human Reprod, 2001;16(2):259-262). Dr. Geeta Nargund and colleagues reached their conclusion following a study of 181 treatments in 52 women at the Assisted Conception Unit at King's College Hospital, London, United Kingdom. All the women had treatment based around their natural menstrual cycles.

They were found to have the same chance of having a baby after an average of three to four cycles of treatment as women undergoing conventional drug-stimulated treatment - about a third (32% as compared to 34%).

The first test-tube baby, born in 1978 in England, was the result of normal menstrual cycle IVF treatment, but the practice was pretty well abandoned with the onset of extensive use of hormonal drugs to stimulate the ovaries into producing more eggs per cycle. This new study is the first to establish that basing treatment on a woman's natural cycle can achieve comparable results with those of drug-stimulated cycles.

Nargund, who now directs the fertility center at St. George's Hospital, London, said. "We've demonstrated that it is an effective and potentially cost-effective option for certain groups. With a trend now to reducing the number of embryos transferred, our study must open the debate as to whether a series of natural cycle treatments should become a mainstream conception technique for female infertility."

The women most suited are those with reasonably regular menstrual cycles who ovulate normally but who have problems with their fallopian tubes, or those couples where the reason for the infertility is inexplicable. It would not be suitable for women who don't ovulate or who have very erratic menstrual cycles and probably also not for couples undergoing ICSI (the injection of a single sperm into the egg), ...