Recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone produces more oocytes with a lower total dose per cycle in assisted reproductive technologies compared with highly purified human menopausal gonadotrophin: a meta-analysis

Table 2 Current and prior meta-analyses comparing hMG versus r-hFSH

	Al-In, 2003	Al-In, 2005	Al-In, 2008	Al-In, 2009	Coom 2008	West, 2003	Sponsor	Paper	Chalmers	n_hMG	n_r-hFSH
Duijkers, 1997 [46]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	58	7	6
Jansen et al. 1998 [19]	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	72	35	54
Kornilov et al. 1999 [20]	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	67	40	28
Serhal et al. 2000 [21]	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	60	144	94
Ng et al. 2001 [16]	1	1	1	0	1	1	0	1	56	20	20
Strehler et al. 2001 [22]	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	67	248	259
Westergaard et al. 2001 [17]	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	64	189	190
Gordon et al. 2001 [15]	1	1	1	0	1	1	0	1	63	29	39
European and Israeli Study Group 2002 [14]	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	71	357	336
Kilani et al. 2003 [25]	0	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	67	50	50
Balasch et al. 2003 [24]	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	65	25	25
Rashidi et al. 2005 [29]	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	72	30	30
Andersen et al. 2006 [5]	0	0	1	1	1	0	1	1	77	363	368
Hompes et al. 2008 [28]	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	76	312	317
Bosch et al. 2008 [27]	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	57	122	126
Ruvolo et al. 2009 [47]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	52	10	19

16 studies identified from the literature search, compared with previous meta-analyses. The first 6 columns compared the referenced meta-analyses using the following definitions: sponsor, whether or not the study was funded by a pharmaceutical company; paper, whether a peer-reviewed publication or abstract only was available; Chalmers, the Chalmers internal validity mean score [29]. The last two columns are the sample sizes for each study.

ISSN: 1477-7827