A rapid serum estrogen assay suitable for office use in monitoring follicular maturation.

Ovulation induction often requires the determination of serum estradiol levels. A rapid, sensitive, and simple non-radioactive serum estrogen assay was developed by modifying a hemagglutination-inhibition kit (Hi-Estrotec) originally designed to measure total urinary estrogens. With a minimum sensitivity of 100 pg of 17-beta-estradiol, the modified procedure generally takes less than 2.5 hours to complete and requires no special equipment or instrumentation. Randomly obtained serum samples assayed by both the hemagglutination-inhibition assay and radioimmunoassay achieved a correlation coefficient of 0.885 (P less than .001). Comparison of serum obtained from women undergoing ovulation induction with human menopausal gonadotropin-human chorionic gonadotropin measured by both techniques showed the same fluctuation pattern for serum estradiol levels during the stimulated cycles. The rapidity and reproducibility of this serum estrogen assay make it suitable for office use in monitoring ovulation induction and superovulation in in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer programs.