Fertility Treatment Shows No Benefit

[Angel]

Roughly 10 percent of couples are unable to conceive after one year of unprotected sex. Couples in this situation may use a commonly recommended treatment, intrauterine insemination with controlled ovarian hyperstimulation. However, this treatment is costly and involves the risk of multiple births.

This technique, which involves depositing sperm into the women's uterus and stimulating her ovaries with hormones, was found ineffective in people with a 30-percent chance of natural pregnancy.

Pieternel Steures, M.D., of the Academic Medical Centre and Vrije Universiteit Medical Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and her associates observed 253 couples with unexplained infertility issues. The group had a 30- to 40-percent chance of pregnancy due to intrauterine insemination with ovarian hyperstimulation or expectant management, a technique involving giving advice on how to conceive naturally and couples attempting for six months.

In the group that received intrauterine insemination with ovarian hyperstimulation, 42 women conceived, while 29 pregnancies were in progress. In the expectant management group, 40 women conceived, and 34 pregnancies were in progress, revealing the insemination group had no advantage.

"Our study shows that identification of couples who will not benefit from intrauterine insemination is possible. Through selection of these couples, the misuse of facilities and other resources can be avoided," Steures reports.