Original Article

The effect of oral and transdermal estrogen supplementation on frozenthawed embryo transfer pregnancy outcomes

10.5455/gulhane.153924

  • Uğur KESKİN
  • Beril YÜKSEL
  • Cihangir Mutlu ERCAN
  • Mustafa ULUBAY
  • Ulaş FİDAN
  • Cem KORKMAZ
  • Seyit Temel CEYHAN
  • Ali ERGÜN

Received Date: 06.03.2014 Accepted Date: 02.07.2014 Gulhane Med J 2015;57(3):280-283

The artificial preparation of endometrium is one of the most important steps in effecting the outcome of frozen-thawed embryo transfer cycles. Estrogen supplementation has been used in different doses and routes for the sufficient endometrial preparation. The aim of this study was to, find out the effect of estrogen administration either orally vs transdermally on pregnancy outcomes. Sixty-four patients were included in this retrospective study. The patients were divided into two groups according to their estrogen administration (Group 1 (n:30): Estrogen supplemented via orally; group 2 (n:34): Estrogen supplemented via transdermally). The primary outcome of this study was to compare the pregnancy and live birth rates of these two groups.

The mean ages of the study groups were, 30,26 ± 3,43, and 30,50 ± 5,02 in group 1 and 2, respectively (p:0,819). The mean number of embryo transfers were recorded as; 1,36 ± 0,55 and 1,47 ± 0,61 in group 1 and 2, respectively (p:0,496). The pregnancy rates were 53,3% (n: 16/30) in group 1 and 47,1% (n:16/34) in group 2 (p:0,616). The live birth rates were 40,0% (12/30) in group 1 and 26,5% (9/34) in group 2 (p: 0,250).

In conclusion, the endometrial preparation with either oral or transdermal estrogen preparations do not have any significant effect on pregnancy outcomes in frozen-thawed embryo transfer cycles.

Keywords: Frozen embryo transfer; Estrogen; Endometrial preparation;