Using birth control pill or lupron in the IVF world seems quite popular for advanced age patients, low ovary reserve or POI.
1) endometriosis
“Based on our research on Endometrisos and speaking with other endometriosis patients it seems that ovarian suppression with GnRH agonists like LUPRON (3-months) or birth control pills (BCP) with Letrozole for two cycles pre-IVF treatment may help with some of the bad effects (i.e. uterine inflammation/beta 3 integrin) of the endometriosis and improve IVF pregnancy rates.” one of the fertility doctor said.
2) ovarian cysts
Some protocols call for patients to begin taking birth control pills. When prescribed, birth control pills should be given for a minimum of 10 days to prepare your body for the IVF process by controlling your ovarian hormones and preventing ovarian cysts.
3)Picking IVF stimulation time
They are also beneficial in the timing of the process. When instructed by your doctor to begin the Lupron injections, there will be some medication overlap as you take birth control pills for several more days before stopping them. You will take the Lupron for 10-12 days on average. Sometimes, they are called “IVF LONG CYCLE EGG RETRIEVAL-ANTAGONIST VIVELLE PROTOCOL”
4) More follicles
The purpose is to slow down the primary follicle development while letting more secondary follicles come up so that there are more runner in the beginning line. First, in a normal menstrual cycle multiple follicles (which contain the eggs) begin to grow, but then one follicle becomes dominant and grows faster than the rest and the remaining follicles stop progressing. In an IVF cycle though, we want as many follicles as possible to grow. By taking birth control pills before starting the oviarian stimulation medications, the follicles are more likely to grow at a similar rate. This leads to a greater number of follicles being mature at the same time, and therefore increases the number of eggs that are retrieved.
However, doctors at Fertility Authority “discovered that women who had used birth control at the beginning of an IVF cycle had poorer response to stimulation drugs and fewer eggs available for retrieval than those who had not used birth control. “Older, more androgenic birth control pills had more of a suppressive effect on AMH and fewer follicles during stimulation compared to those who did not use contraception or those who used less or anti-androgenic birth control pills. More modern birth control pills have less of an effect on ovarian reserve,” An alternative would be to treat fertility patients with an estrogen patch priming protocol for ten days before beginning the cycle, a low dose Lupron protocol in conjunction with stimulation drugs at the beginning of the cycle”
With all the above, what can Chinese Medicine help them? we shall start nurture them when they are at secondary stage which span about 120 days. the longer interception start, the better. Normally I will say 3 menstrual cycles. How? that is the start of what Chinese medicine can offer, acupuncture and herbs supplements. Since all of these have no hormonal ingredient and are at food supplement lever, we can help follicle grown well while IVF medicine doing their job.
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