Luteal estrogen supplementation in stimulated cycles may improve the pregnancy rate in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection-embryo transfer.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of estradiol addition to progesterone supplementation during the luteal phase on pregnancy and implantation rates in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection-embryo transfer (IVF/ICSI-ET) cycles. METHODS: In this prospective, randomized study, carried out in an IVF unit of a university hospital, we studied patients who were undergoing IVF/ICSI with controlled ovarian hyperstimulation using a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist/human recombinant gonadotropin long protocol. The main outcome measures were the pregnancy and implantation rates measured in the two groups. RESULTS: Our results suggest higher pregnancy and implantation rates in IVF/ICSI-ET cycles that were supplemented with estradiol in the luteal phase. CONCLUSIONS: Estradiol supplementation during the luteal phase in women undergoing IVF/ICSI-ET has a beneficial effect on the outcome without (at least, as seems from this study) having any adverse effects.

The incidence of retained fetal bone revealed in 2000 diagnostic hysteroscopies.

Three of 2000 diagnostic hysteroscopies revealed residual fetal bony fragments in women with abnormal uterine bleeding. Removal of bony fragments by hysteroscopy is associated with therapeutic success.