low-dose urinary human chorionic gonadotropin is effective for oocyte maturation in in vitro fertilization/ intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles independent of body mass index

objective: currently, there is no agreement on the optimal urinary derived human chorionic gonadotropin (u-hcg) dose requirement for initiating final oocyte maturation prior to oocyte collection in in vitro fertilization (ivf), but doses that range from 2500- 15000 iu have been used. we intended to determine whether low dose u-hcg was effective for oocyte maturation in ivf/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (icsi) cycles independent of body mass index (bmi). materials and methods: we retrospectively evaluated a cohort of 295 women who underwent their first ivf/icsi cycles between january 2003 and december 2010 at the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, wayne state university, detroit, mi, usa. treatment cycles were divided into 3 groups based on bmi (kg/ m2): <25 (n=136), 25- <30 (n=84), and ≥30 (n=75) women. patients received 5000, 10000 or 15000 iu u-hcg for final maturation prior to oocyte collection. the primary outcome was clinical pregnancy rates (cprs) and secondary outcome was live birth rates (lbrs). results: only maternal age negatively impacted (p<0.001) cpr [odds ratio (or=0.85, confidence interval (ci: 0.79-0.91)] and lbr (or=0.84, ci: 0.78-0.90). conclusion: administration of lower dose u-hcg was effective for oocyte maturation in ivf and did not affect the cprs and lbrs irrespective of bmi. women’s bmi need not be taken into consideration in choosing the appropriate dose of u-hcg for final oocyte maturation prior to oocyte collection in ivf. only maternal age at the time of ivf negatively influenced cprs and lbrs in this study.