Author(s)

Abd El-Naser Abd El-Gaber Ali^*, Mustafa M. Khodry

ART Unit of Obstetrics & Gynecology Department, Qena Faculty of Medicine, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt.

Background: As regard to adjuvant supplementations, nowadays dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is widely used all over the world and is considered to be a potential agent to ameliorate the assisted reproduction technologies outcomes of infertile women with poor ovarian reserve. Objective: To find out the role of DHEA supplementation in improving intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcome for infertile women with expected poor ovarian response in controlled ovarian stimulation. Setting: Assisted reproduction unit of Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Faculty of Medicine, South Valley University, Egypt. Duration: From April 2016 to May 2018. Study Design: A randomized double-blinded controlled trial. Methods: One hundred and forty infertile women with expected poor ovarian response prepared for ICSI procedure were included in this study. Patients were divided into two groups; group I (DHEA group) included 70 patients received 25 mg DHEA 12 weeks prior to ICSI cycle and group II (placebo group) included 70 patients received a placebo. Results: There was a highly statistically significant difference in basal AFC at start of ICSI cycle in group I (who received DHEA supplementation for 12 weeks prior to ICSI procedure) than in group II (13.8 ± 5.3 versus 10.7 ± 4.6 respectively) with P < 0.001. There were mildly statistically significant differences between group I and group II as regard to increase in the number and quality of retrieved oocytes, increased in endometrial thickness, fertilization rate and embryo quality with p value < 0.05 but there was no statistically significant difference between the 2 groups as regard to pregnancy (chemical and clinical) rates (p value > 0.05). Conclusions & Recommendations: DHEA supplementations improved basal AFC, increased the number & quality of oocytes and increased quality of embryos in infertile patients with expected poor ovarian response in ICSI procedure. So DHEA supplementations could be an important adjuvant for infertile women with expected poor ovarian response in ICSI procedure.

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), Poor Ovarian Response (POR)

Ali, A. and Khodry, M. (2019) Role of Dehydroepiandrosterone Supplementation in Improving Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection Outcome for Women with Expected Poor Ovarian Response. Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 9, 353-362. doi: 10.4236/ojog.2019.93036.