Effect of Ovarian Stimulation With r-hLH/r-hFSH,r-hFSH and hMG in Reducing Apoptosis Rate in Cumulus Cells of Patients Undergoing ICSI

HP-hMG, recombinant FSH (r-hFSH) and a combination of r-hFSH/r-hLH, are commonly used for ovarian stimulation in infertile women undergoing IVF/ICSI treatments. Several publications have compared the effectiveness of these compounds, in terms of clinical outcomes. The aim of our study is to investigate the effects of three different ovarian stimulation protocols (HP-hMG, r-hFSH and r-hFSH/r-hLH), in a pilot prospective observational study, evaluating the effects of recombinant LH and extractive hCG (with LH like activity) on the biological outcome as well as on the clinical outcome. We will use the apoptosis rate of the cumulus cell, usually discarded after oocyte collection, as molecular biomarker to assess the oocyte quality, as biological outcome. The clinical outcome was estimated measuring implantation and ongoing pregnancy rates within and between the three different ovarian stimulation protocols