Study design and participants
A retrospective study of infertile women with normal ovarian reserve
attending the Assisted Reproduction clinic, Shanghai First Maternity and
Infant Hospital for IVF from January 2018 to December 2018 was
undertaken. Ethical approval was not required for the retrospective
analysis.
Women were included if they
fulfilled the following inclusion
criteria:
(i) less than 40 years of age; (ii)
having indications for IVF; (iii) regular menstrual cycles over the
previous 3-month period (25–35 days in duration); (iv) antral follicle
count (AFC) of more than 5 on menstrual cycle day 2–3, and basal serum
FSH concentration of no more than 10 IU/L. Women were excluded if they
had: (i) diagnosis of polycystic ovarian syndrome, (ii) an abnormal
uterine cavity shown on hysterosalpingogram or hysteroscopy, (iii)
moderate or severe endometriosis,
(iv)
use of donor eggs/sperm, (v) preimplantation genetic testing for
aneuploidy, (vi) rescue intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) or half
ICSI or (vii) antagonist cycles with
fresh embryo transfer.
Women were offered either progestin-primed ovarian stimulation
protocol
(PPOS group) or
antagonist protocol
(antagonist group) at the
discretion of the attending physicians or subject to the wishes of the
couple.