residual pituitary activity after down regulation

ABSTRACT

To investigate the pituitary gland activity over a period of three hours after adequate down regulation. This prospective study started with twelve patients underwent IVF treatment under long down regulation protocol. When they attended on day 2 of the treatment cycle to confirm down regulation, a blood sample was obtained from each patient before the daily buserelin administration and repeated at 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours and 3 hours post the buserelin administration to check the changes in FSH, LH and E2 levels. There were obvious and significant increases in LH [P < 0.001] and FSH [P = 0.04] concentrations post buserelin administration that reached to a maximum levels one hour post buserelin and lasted for at least 3 hours. after a clinically successful down-regulation the pituitary gland remains responsive to the GnRH agonist and tonically releases LH in response to the GnRH agonist administration which may have clinical implications