Liraglutide increases IVF pregnancy rates in obese PCOS women with poor response to first-line reproductive treatments: a pilot randomized study

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Liraglutide in the context of pcos in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) has been investigated in regulation of reproductive system in animal models.

The potential impact of short-term preconception intervention with liraglutide on fertility potential in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has not been evaluated yet.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 28 patients were involved.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, women only.

A prospective randomized open-label study was conducted in 28 infertile obese PCOS patients (age: 31.07 ± 4.75, BMI: 36.7 ± 3.5 kg/m2, mean ± s.d.).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, open-label and pilot study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Liraglutide group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Being open-label, the Liraglutide study did not mask who received what.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Liraglutide study would be practical.

The timeline in the abstract includes 4 weeks.

Ovarian stimulation protocol was started after a 4-week medication-free period.

The in vitro fertilization pregnancy rate (PR) was defined as the number of clinical pregnancies confirmed by ultrasound visualization of the fetal cardiac activity, divided by the total number of cycles performed or embryo transfers (ET).

The spontaneous PR was followed for 12 months.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Fertilization in Vitro, Hypoglycemic Agents, Infertility, Female, Liraglutide, Metformin, Obesity and Ovulation Induction.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, open-label and pilot study of Liraglutide in 28 patients in people with pcos over 4 weeks.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2018 (European journal of endocrinology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Liraglutide compound page, PCOS research.