Adding L-carnitine to antagonist ovarian stimulation doesn't improve the outcomes of IVF/ ICSI cycle in patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome: a double-blind randomized clinical trial

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of L-Carnitine, published as a randomized controlled trial.

To investigate the effect of L-carnitine supplementation during the controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) cycle with antagonist protocol in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) diagnosis undergoing IVF/ICSI treatment.

Why It Was Studied

The study was registered in the Clinicaltrials.gov site on December 17, 2020 (NCT04672720).

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 110 patients taking part.

PubMed tags the participants as women only.

This was a double-blind clinical trial study including 110 patients with PCOS attended to Royan Institute between March 2020 and February 2023.

At the beginning of the COS cycle, the eligible patients were allocated into two groups randomly according to the coding list of the drugs prepared by the statistical consultant.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

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

As a double-blind L-Carnitine study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the L-Carnitine group a baseline to be compared against.

In the control group, patients received 3 placebo tablets for the same period of time.

Weight assessment and fasting blood sugar and insulin tests, as well as serum lipid profile were also measured at the baseline and ovum pick-up day.

The results of the COS cycle as well as the implantation and pregnancy rates were compared between groups.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Carnitine, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Blood Glucose, Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic, Insulins and Lipids.

Author keywords: IVF/ICSI cycles, L-carnitine, Lipid profile, Oocyte quality and Weight loss.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of L-Carnitine in 110 patients.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2024 (Journal of ovarian research), a journal based in England.

More context: the L-Carnitine compound page, all human trials.