The ultra-long study: a randomized controlled trial evaluating long-term GnRH downregulation prior to ART in women with endometriosis.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Gonadorelin in the context of endometriosis.

However, the quality of the studies on which this statement is based is questionable, so these findings need confirmation.

He is also a professor in Reproductive Medicine and Biology at the Department of Development and Regeneration, Group Biomedical Sciences, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Belgium and an adjunct professor at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the University of Yale, New Haven, USA.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 172 patients were involved.

PubMed tags the participants as women only.

A controlled, randomized, open label trial was performed between 1 June 2013 and 31 December 2016 (start and end of recruitment, respectively).

Patients with prior complete laparoscopic treatment of any type or stage of endometriosis and an indication for ART were randomized (by a computer-generated allocation sequence) into two groups: the control group underwent ART stimulation in a classical long agonist protocol using preparation with oral contraceptives, the ultra-long group first underwent at least 3 months downregulation followed by a long agonist protocol for ART stimulation.

How the Study Was Run

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

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Gonadorelin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

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

This trial was conducted at the Leuven University Fertility Center, a tertiary care center for endometriosis and infertility, and a total of 42 patients were randomized (21 in the control group and 21 in the ultra-long group).

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Down-Regulation, Endometriosis, Fertilization in Vitro, Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone, Infertility, Ovulation Induction and Pregnancy Rate.

Author keywords: ART, early termination of clinical trial, randomized controlled trial and triptorelin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and open-label study of Gonadorelin in 172 patients in people with endometriosis.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2021 (Human reproduction (Oxford, England)), a journal based in England.

More context: the Gonadorelin compound page, Endometriosis research.