Increasing clinical pregnancy rates after IVF/ET. Can immunosuppression help?

Objective: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of immunosuppression as an adjunct to improving the success of in vitro fertilization/embryo transfer (IVF-ET).

Study Design: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

Results: Seventy-five patients were randomized to receive either prednisone (39 patients, 51%) or placebo (36 patients, 49%). Patients in both groups had similar ages and numbers of preembryos transferred.

Conclusion: Both the implantation and clinical pregnancy rates were higher in the prednisone group (16% vs. 11% and 43.5% vs. 32.3%, respectively). However, these differences did not achieve statistical significance. Evaluation of the ongoing pregnancy rate revealed little difference between the prednisone-treated patients (30.7%) and those receiving placebo (28.0%). There were no side effects reported by patients in either group.