hCG administration offers no outcome benefit over spontaneous ovulation in anovulatory women treated with clomiphene citrate. Evaluation of clomiphene citrate and human chorionic gonadotropin treatment: a prospective, randomized, crossover study during intrauterine insemination cycles.
This randomized controlled trial compared spontaneous ovulation versus hCG-triggered ovulation in anovulatory women treated with clomiphene citrate. No statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of ovulation and pregnancy rates. To test the hypothesis that in couples undergoing IUI, actively managed cycles using clomiphene citrate (CC) stimulation, ultrasound monitoring, and hCG timing will result in increased pregnancy rate (PR) per cycle compared with unstimulated urinary LH-timed cycles.
                Fifty-six couples with unexplained infertility (n = 26) or male factor infertility (n = 30) participated in the study.
                Tertiary academic medical center.
                Prospective, randomized, crossover. Couples were randomized initially to one of the two study groups (treatment A: LH-timed IUI; treatment B: CC-stimulated, hCG-timed IUI). If no pregnancy occurred, each couple alternated between the two regimens during subsequent cycles, up to a total of four cycles.
                Twenty-nine couples completed the study and the analysis of 95 cycles revealed that among the male factor infertility group, one pregnancy occurred during the 26 cycles of each treatment group (PR per cycle of 3.9% for both treatment groups). In contrast, among the unexplained infertility group, there was a marked difference in the effect of treatments. During treatment A only one pregnancy occurred in 20 cycles (PR of 5% per cycle) whereas during treatment B, six pregnancies occurred in 23 cycles (PR of 26.1% per cycle).
                If IUI is chosen as the treatment modality in unexplained infertility, the addition of active ovulation management that includes CC stimulation, ultrasound monitoring of folliculogenesis, and hCG timing of ovulation increases the PR per cycle. In couples with male infertility, PR per cycle is low and is apparently not affected by the addition of active ovulation management.
There is inadequate evidence to recommend or refute the use of urinary hCG, as an ovulation trigger, in anovulatory women being treated with clomiphene citrate. We did not find trials evaluating the use of ovulation triggers in anovulatory women, being treated with other ovulation inducing agents.