The Effect of Intrauterine Infusion of Human Gonadotropin (HCG) on the Outcome of Embryo Transfer Cycles in Infertile Women: A Randomized Clinical Trial

The effects of using intrauterine human gonadotropin hormone (HCG) with different dose before embryo transfer cycles on pregnancy rate in infertile women had controversy results. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of infusion 500 units of HCG 15 minutes before embryo transfer cycles on pregnancy outcome in infertile women.

The present randomized clinical trial study was conducted on 196 infertile women referred to Yas Infertility Center, Tehran, Iran, from June to November 2019. The patients randomly allocated to the groups by balanced block randomization (99 patients in each group). The intervention group received 500 IU of HCG 15 minutes before embryo transfer by intrauterine infusion and in the control group no intervention was performed before embryo transfer. The in-vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle outcomes between two groups was assessed 15 days after embryo transfer and compared with chi square test.

The main causes of infertility in both groups were male factors and mixed factors. The chemical pregnancy rate in the HCG group was significantly higher than those of in the control group (30.92% vs. 18.18%, p =0.004). However, no significant difference was found in terms of clinical pregnancy, early miscarriage rate, ectopic pregnancy rate and twin pregnancy rate (p >0.05).

The infusion of 500 IU of HCG 15 minutes before embryo transfer improved the chemical pregnancy rate. However, due to conflicting result in other previous studies, further evidence with high sample size studies is needed to confirm the findings of this study.