The significance of our regimen is that one shot of long-acting FSH substitutes for seven daily injections and oral MPA co-administration replaces many shots of GnRH analogue, which decreases psycho/physical burden and time-exhausting visits along with more convenience and less cost (MPA versus GnRH antagonist). To our knowledge, most publications about PPOS to date were based on HMG, and whether MPA–PPOS was comparable with antagonist protocol in long-acting FSH application has not been reported. Thus, our study is the first one comparing PPOS versus antagonist protocol with long-acting FSH use.
Thanks to recombinant DNA technologies, one single shot of corifollitropin alfa, wherein the FSH β-subunit is extended by a carboxy-terminal peptide of the hCG β-subunit [18], can support follicle-stimulating activity equivalent to the circulating FSH level sufficient for multiple follicle growth throughout the first week [19] and thus replace seven daily FSH injections with compatible reproductive outcomes in conventional protocols [20]. There is no exogenous LH-effect agent given during the first week of stimulation. The major uniqueness of our protocol compared with other PPOS regimens, accordingly, is to rely on the remaining endogenous LH activity under progestin suppression in the first 7 days of ovarian stimulation. Debate about the role of LH in ovarian stimulation is still continuing. Due to diverse results, the necessity of LH supplementation for patients undergoing IVF/ICSI cycles is still uncertain [21, 22]. The updated Cochrane review showed no clear evidence of a difference between rLH combined with rFSH and rFSH alone in live birth rates in spite of more ongoing pregnancies under LH supplementation, in which the benefits appeared to be more evident for low responders [23]. Hence, we don’t propose the long-acting FSH plus MPA regimen in low responders. Because of limited comprehension about the preventive effect of endogenous progesterone on premature LH surge in the past, previous investigation about luteal start utilizing pure FSH [3, 24, 25] usually initiated daily GnRH antagonist from the first day of ovarian stimulation. In these regimens both GnRH antagonists and endogenous progesterone exerted suppressive influence and consequently resulted in much more profound pituitary suppression and therefore much higher dosage of FSH or longer stimulation duration. Long-acting FSH has also been used in a fashion of random start with antagonist protocol [26], but there is lack of investigation specific to luteal stimulation. As for PPOS without GnRH antagonist, the group in China led by Kuang [8, 10, 27] demonstrated that MPA leads to stronger pituitary suppression in PPOS as compared with utrogestan and dydrogesterone, under which the LH values gradually declined in the first 5 days of MPA co-treatment. The proportion of women with profound pituitary suppression, which is defined as serum LH less than 1.0 IU/L on the trigger day, was 32% in the PPOS with daily MPA 10 mg commenced along with gonadotrophin stimulation [28]. The aforementioned researches used HMG for ovarian stimulation; therefore, whether PPOS without LH supplementation is adequate remains unclear. The only study utilizing urinary FSH to compare with two brands of HMG in PPOS for normal responders [29] showed no differences in the number of retrieved oocytes, mature oocytes as well as fertilization, cleavage, embryo quality, and pregnancy outcomes among groups, even under subanalysis upon patients with LH less than 0.68 IU/L on the trigger day. In our regimen, we arbitrarily started MPA supplement from the second day of gonadotrophin stimulation, and the LH levels on stimulation day 8 were measured to be 2.70 ± 1.84 IU/L in our previous study [14] and 2.85 ± 2.40 IU/L in the current investigation (data not shown). After stimulation day 8, HMG was added until trigger criteria were met. We demonstrated that the reproductive outcomes of long-acting FSH + MPA are satisfactory and comparable to those of long-acting FSH + antagonist. Certainly, further randomized controlled trials are needed.
Different progestin gives rise to different level of pituitary suppression [10, 27]. Previous researches showed dydrogesterone 20 mg/d has less pituitary suppression than MPA 10 mg/d but more than utrogestan 100 mg/d. The pituitary suppression in utrogestan–PPOS is dose-dependent [30]; in contrast, MPA shows no difference in the proportion of profound pituitary suppression between 4 mg/d and 10 mg/d [28]. Despite various levels of pituitary suppression, there was no difference in the reproductive outcomes among various types and dosages of progestogen in the studies upon normal responders [10, 27, 30]. The difference might emerge in low responders stimulated with only FSH instead of HMG or FSH + LH. On the other hand, it seems that clomiphene co-administration is able to avoid LH over-suppression in PPOS, which resulted in an initial slight rise followed by a downward trend in LH, although the limited data came from normal responders [31] and high responders [32]. If we design to extend our extremely patient-friendly regimen to low responders, different progestin and clomiphene combinations may be considered in PPOS with long-acting FSH where no exogenous LH is given in the first week.
Almost all previous relevant studies unanimously required higher dosage of HMG with or without longer duration for stimulation in MPA–PPOS [8, 12, 33]. In our finding, there was no significant difference in stimulation duration and gonadotrophin consumption between PPOS and antagonist protocol. There are two possible explanations: first, the comparison protocol in all of the aforementioned PPOS studies in the literature was short protocol, which had flare-up effects that were absent in antagonist protocol used in our study; second, we started MPA from the second day of gonadotrophin stimulation, which was one day later than the PPOS protocol in previous studies mentioned above and might lessen the pituitary suppression. Another retrospective cohort study comparing PPOS versus flexible antagonist protocol in the same donor aged between 23 and 29 years old administered MPA 10 mg/day from the 7th day of daily FSH stimulation or when the leading follicle reached 14 mm, whichever came first, and named this method as flexible progestin primed ovarian stimulation (fPPOS). Stimulation duration, gonadotropin consumption, and duration of GnRH antagonist/MPA administration were similar, and no premature ovulation occurred in either group. There were significantly more metaphase II oocytes in fPPOS cycles than in GnRH antagonist cycles. Recipients of fresh oocytes from fPPOS and GnRH antagonist cycles had similar cleavage, implantation, and live birth/ongoing pregnancy rates [34]. As to PPOS versus long protocol which suppresses pituitary function much more than short and antagonist protocol, there was a retrospective self-controlled study conducted on 104 aged infertile patients who failed in their first IVF/ICSI attempt by means of long protocol. The oocyte utilization rate and good-quality embryo rate in PPOS cycles were significantly higher. The duration of stimulation, total dosage of gonadotrophin, the number of oocytes retrieved, and fertilization rate were similar between PPOS and long protocols [35].
According to previous investigation, the fertility potential of oocytes collected in the presence of exogenous progestogen, regardless of MPA [8, 12], dydrogesterone [10, 27, 34], or utrogestan [9, 13, 36], are as competent as those collected via conventional stimulation protocols. An interesting big data revealed no difference in the reproductive outcome of the oocytes induced in the presence or absence of levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine device [37]. Despite highest concentration of levonorgestrel within the uterus, serum level of levonorgestrel varied between 134 and 191 pg/ml [38], thus offering further observation of the effect of progestin on ovarian stimulation outcomes. In regards to endogenous progesterone, the reproductive outcomes of oocytes stimulated during luteal phase have already been qualified on a large scale [5–7].
The LH suppressive effect of progestogen has been utilized in the development of oral contraceptives, but has not been applied in ovarian stimulation for ART until remarkable improvement in freezing/thawing outcomes brought about by vitrification. ‘Freeze all’ is mandatory in PPOS. The leading benefit about FET is to eliminate the risk of late-onset OHSS without compromising implantation rate [39]. There is no absolute predictor for OHSS and a presumed normal responder according to AMH or AFC still could have potential OHSS risk [40]. In our center, for that reason, freeze-all policy is applied for both normal and high responders, and the extremely patient-friendly protocol lightens their load in the physical/mental/economic aspects. To alleviate the stress from injections, there were some regimens described in the previous literature. Long-acting GnRH agonist depot was anticipated to be better than short-acting ones. In a retrospective study including more than four hundred patients, however, higher OHSS risk and inferior reproductive outcomes were noted in the long-acting group [41], albeit no significant difference in another meta-analysis [42]. For better or worse, daily shots of gonadotrophins were still needed in the aforementioned downregulation protocols. It was proposed that GnRH antagonist can be used occasionally only when serum LH exceeds 6 IU/L during ovarian stimulation started with long-acting FSH (corifollitropin alfa) [43]. In spite of reduced injections, this protocol needs frequent blood tests to monitor LH titers for timely initiation of antagonist injection, which is bothersome and stressful on the other hand. Despite close follow-up, moreover, it is still possible to miss some LH peaks. Without any prevention, the rate of premature LH surge during ovarian stimulation was 20–25% according to the previous literature [44]. Using our method, the first visit was arranged at one week after long-acting FSH injection, and only an average of 1.4 visits were needed before trigger, which is convenient and friendly for the patients.