Can hormone replacement therapy prior to oocyte donation cycle in women with premature ovarian failure improve pregnancy rate?

BackgroundInfertility is an important issue in women with Premature Ovarian Failure (POF). With no conclusive treatment available to enhance fertility in these women, it is the use of donor eggs with In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) which can fulfil their desire to become a mother in a novel way. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in POF apart from correcting the endocrine defect also helps in improving the milieu of the uterus by improving its vascularisation and the sub endometrial blood flow. We thus aimed to carry out a study to find out whether hormone replacement therapy if administered prior to the oocyte donation cycle in patients of premature ovarian failure improves the pregnancy rate.MethodsA comparative study was carried out incorporating 46 subjects with 23 in each group. Group A received HRT prior to their oocyte donation cycle while the second group entered into the oocyte donation programme directly after an artificially induced menstruation.ResultsIt was observed that, although the HRT group had a slightly higher pregnancy rate, with a better mean endometrial thickness as compared to the non HRT group it was not statistically significant.ConclusionsInstitution of hormone replacement therapy does improve the vascularisation of the uterus, corrects the histologic features of the uterine lining and makes the endometrium receptive but whether it enhances the pregnancy rate needs to be elucidated with further studies.