Mild stimulation in assisted reproduction.

The conventional ovarian stimulation protocols currently applied have several drawbacks arising from the intense ovarian stimulation and from the high financial cost. Recently, new concepts such as mild stimulation and friendly in vitro fertilisation have rapidly acquired great popularity among infertile patients although the medical world is still reluctant to apply these protocols generally. We have observed that although with soft stimulation fewer oocytes are retrieved, pregnancy rates are not affected if more than five oocytes are obtained in the follicular aspiration. Another important issue is the additional value of the embryo cryopreservation programmes that will result in cumulative pregnancy rates no different from those obtained with conventional protocols. The benefits of combining these mild stimulation protocols with a selective reduction of the number of embryos to replace have helped us in reducing the incidence of multiple pregnancies and the global cost of the treatment.