Artificial insemination: a deceptive recipe for the desired child

If only a few egg cells form in a woman despite intensive hormone stimulation, the chances of having a child with in vitro fertilization (artificial insemination) are slim.

A study that was presented at this year's congress of the European Society for Reproductive Medicine therefore sounds promising.

Spanish doctors have stimulated women twice during a cycle with hormones and twice removed egg cells from them (DuoStim therapy).

In the study, 41 subjects out of 80 women were treated with DuoStim, the rest with double conventional stimulation.

All women were older than 38 years.

A similar number of embryos were created in both groups, but with DuoStim an average of three weeks earlier.

"The charm is that a second cohort of egg cells matures that we would otherwise not receive during this time," says Andreas Tandler-Schneider, head of the Fertility Center Berlin.

The approach is not new.

In 2009, the reproductive medicine specialist Michael von Wolff - at that time in the Heidelberg University Clinic, today in the University Hospital Bern - proved that egg cells can be obtained effectively regardless of the time of the cycle.

DuoStim is ideal for women who suffer from cancer in order to maintain their fertility.

No benefit to infertile women

Chemotherapy should therefore be started quickly, and the duration of the stimulation therefore plays a major role.

Researchers later tested DuoStim for women who wanted to have children, but these studies, unlike the current one, were not randomized.

For sterile women, von Wolff hardly sees a clear advantage for the DuoStim.

First, the woman misses the opportunity to get pregnant after the first cycle and may inject unnecessary hormones.

Second, it's not clear whether women actually have a baby faster with DuoStim.

Thirdly, the woman must expect additional costs of 1500 to 2000 euros.

The only situation in which von Wolff could imagine using DuoStim would be a 40-year-old woman who only developed three egg cells with classic stimulation.

"With DuoStim we could generate and freeze many embryos in such a case before the woman gets even older and pregnancy becomes unlikely."