Women with low response to IVF medication- what else can we do?
Patients with low ovarian reserve - who we know in advance will have a poor response to IVF medication - are a very challenging group of patients. There is no point of increased medication doses as it doesn’t offer any advantage.
For this reason, Duo Stim (double stimulation) was developed. Duo Stim is a new approach that seems to increase the success rate to women with low ovarian reserve. It includes two egg retrievals in the same cycle.
Fertility expert Evripidis Mantoudis comments:
«With the Duo Stim protocol we can take full advantage of the potential of the ovaries and collect oocytes that probably did not have time to mature until the first egg retrieval.
So far, we have seen impressive results as in the 2nd egg retrieval we have a lot more oocytes - and this is what is required in women with low ovarian reserve. Duo Stim can make a difference in these cases.
"It is definitely an 'intensive' protocol. There must be a very detailed investigation to decide whether a woman is a suitable candidate for Duo Stim.”
There are several steps on this protocol: double egg retrieval and double embryo freezing. Also, the patients has to take medication for more days than in conventional protocols. Embryo thawing and embryo transfer are scheduled for a future cycle.
Fertility expert explains:
«Every day we hear about various methods that are supposed to help women with poor ovarian response and emerge as new opportunities, but over time I have personally found that only a few can make a real difference. Some of the women with poor response to IVF medication may be suitable candidates for Duo Stim.
Ideally, we recommend it for women with a low number of eggs during stimulation, but when there are also other smaller oocytes that did not manage to grow enough until the day of the egg retrieval. In these women, the second stimulation seems to be a reasonable approach. We already have women who had this protocol. Their stories are amazing! To give you an idea, in one of our patients we had 2 eggs in the first egg retrieval and 7 in the second. And now she is pregnant! "
Apart from women with low ovarian reserve, Duo Stim is suitable for women who should not waste valuable time, such as when they need to start treatment for another disease, an upcoming trip, etc.
