The Immunotherapy during in vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer Cycles in Infertile Patients with Endometriosis

Abstract

This study suggests that immunotherapy with corticosteroids could improve the clinical pregnancy rate in endometriosis patients undergoing IVF-ET and may be more effective in patients with positive autoantibodies.

Impact of endometriosis and its staging on assisted reproduction outcome: systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Figures , , S1 and S2 report the results of the 70 individual studies included in the quantitative review that compared endometriosis vs control.…”

The role of immunotherapy in in vitro fertilization and recurrent pregnancy loss: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…All 15 studies had a parallel design. The method of randomization was by permuted blocks in three studies (59,60,62), and it was random assigned in seven (56-58, 61, 64, 66, 68). In five studies the method of randomization was not clear (63,65,67,69,70).…”

Immune modulation treatments—where is the evidence?

“…Further subgroup analysis specific for cause of infertility and dosage or timing of glucocorticoid administration did not reveal any significant differences in pregnancy rates. Seven studies included in the meta-analysis reported the miscarriage rate per couple (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)22). Again, no statistically significant impact on early pregnancy outcomes was evident (OR, 1.48; 95% CI, 0.86-2.54).…”

“…Although no significant decrease in autoantibody titers was observed, pregnancy rates in women with autoantibodies were significantly increased in the intervention arm after the use of glucocorticoids. A further RCT investigated the use of glucocorticoids in women with endometriosis, of whom 38% were also seropositive for non-organ-specific autoantibodies (19). Again, significantly higher pregnancy rates were reported in women allocated to the treatment arm of the study.…”