Two Different Timings of Intrauterine Insemination for Non-Male Infertility

摘要

>Purpose: Our purpose was to assess the simplicity andconvenience of treatment scheduled not on weekends, bycomparing two different timings of intrauterine insemination(IUI) protocol.>Methods: A prospective observational study of two differentprotocols of intrauterine insemination was designed. Twohundred and ten infertile couples with normal spermiogramswere included in this study. Fifty-eight couples were treatedwith IUI 26 to 28 h after human chorionic gonadotropin(hCG) injection plus timed intercourse within a 12- to18-hr period and 147 couples had IUI 36 to 38 hr after hCGinjection and timed intercourse within a 12- to 18-hourperiod. Pregnancy rates were compared with two differentprotocols of IUI.>Results: The mean age, duration, and causes of infertilityand the cycle characteristics following follicular stimulationwere similar between the two groups. The cyclecharacteristics of follicular stimulation in the two treatment groupswere not different. There also were no significant differencesbetween the groups in the type of sperm concentration, spermmotility, and the percentage of sperm with normalmorphology per insemination. The number of follicles greater than17 mm per patient was not significantly different betweenthe two groups. The pregnancy rate per cycle also wassimilar between the two groups in men with lower motilesperm numbers (<40 × 10⁶)(23.6% vs. 23.4%) and in menwith higher sperm numbers (≥40 × 10⁶)(25% vs. 24.4%).>Conclusions: The different timing but similar efficacy ofthese two IUI protocols provides a practical choice toclinicians. The availability of both protocols may avoidunnecessary scheduling of clinical and laboratory work on weekendsand holidays in women participating in controlled ovarianhyperstimulation and IUI programs for treatment ofnon-male infertility.