Role of Dehydroepiandrosterone Supplementation in Improving Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection Outcome for Women with Expected Poor Ovarian Response

Background: As regard to adjuvant supplementations, nowadays dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is widely used all over the world and is considered to be a potential agent to ameliorate the assisted reproduction technologies outcomes of infertile women with poor ovarian reserve. Objective: To find out the role of DHEA supplementation in improving intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcome for infertile women with expected poor ovarian response in controlled ovarian stimulation. Setting: Assisted reproduction unit of Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Faculty of Medicine, South Valley University, Egypt. Duration: From April 2016 to May 2018. Study Design: A randomized double-blinded controlled trial. Methods: One hundred and forty infertile women with expected poor ovarian response prepared for ICSI procedure were included in this study. Patients were divided into two groups; group I (DHEA group) included 70 patients received 25 mg DHEA 12 weeks prior to ICSI cycle and group II (placebo group) included 70 patients received a placebo. Results: There was a highly statistically significant difference in basal AFC at start of ICSI cycle in group I (who received DHEA supplementation for 12 weeks prior to ICSI procedure) than in group II (13.8 ± 5.3 versus 10.7 ± 4.6 respectively) with P 0.05). Conclusions & Recommendations: DHEA supplementations improved basal AFC, increased the number & quality of oocytes and increased quality of embryos in infertile patients with expected poor ovarian response in ICSI procedure. So DHEA supplementations could be an important adjuvant for infertile women with expected poor ovarian response in ICSI procedure.