Low-dose growth hormone supplementation increases clinical pregnancy rate in poor responders undergoing <i>in vitro</i> fertilisation

Poor ovarian response (POR) often means low success rates after in vitro fertilisation (IVF). We aim to study the impact of a low-dose growth hormone (GH) supplementation in pregnancy rates in poor responders in a prospective, self-controlled study of 64 poor responders to previous IVF cycles, who failed to achieve pregnancy and were supplemented with low-doses of GH in a subsequent cycle using the same gonadotropin dose and protocol. Our primary endpoint was the clinical pregnancy rate (CPR), considering secondary endpoints, the number of retrieved oocytes, embryos, embryo quality and the proportion of cycles with embryo transfer. CPR in the GH group was 34.4%. Significant differences were observed for the GH group both in the number of top quality embryos (0.64 ± 0.88 versus 1.03 ± 1.17, p < 0.05) and cryopreserved embryos (0.3 ± 0.81 versus 0.85 ± 1.49, p < 0.05). This is, to our knowledge, the first clinical trial to use a low dose of GH as a supplement for IVF in POR patients. Despite this low dose, we achieved excellent success rates in patients with a very poor prognosis, at a reasonable cost and without side effects, which makes this a safe and cost-effective alternative.