Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) supplementation in diminished ovarian reserve (DOR)

Table 1 Comparisons of pre- and post-DHEA cycles in 25 women with DOR*

	Pre-DHEA	Post-DHEA	p-value
Cycle cancellations (%)	32.0	4.3	0.02
Number oocytes	3.4 ± 0.5	4.4 ± 0.5	<0.05
Fertilized oocytes (n)	1.4 ± 0.3	3.0 ± 0.5	<0.001
(%)	39	67	<0.001
Day 3 blastomeres	3.4 ± 0.4	4.7 ± 0.5	0.01
embryo grade	2.9 ± 0.1	3.4 ± 0.1	0.02
Cumulative embryoscore/oocytes	8.4 ± 1.5	16.1 ± 1.6	0.001
Number of transferred embryos	1.4 ± 0.2	2.4 ± 0.3	0.005
Normal day 3 embryos	1.2 ± 0.2	2.7 ± 0.4	0.001

* 25 patients were evaluated in their respective IVF cycle outcomes pre- and post-DHEA. This study design potentially biases outcome against positive DHEA effects since patients who entered DHEA supplementation after a prior failed IVF cycle, quite obviously, reflected, in view of their prior IVF treatment failure, a negatively selected patient population. Pre- and post DHEA cycles occurred at ages 39 ± 0.8 and 40.4 ± 0.8 years, respectively, also mildly biasing the study against positive DHEA findings. Post-DHEA patients were on supplementation 17.6 ± 2.13 weeks by time of second IVF cycle. Data extracted from Barad and Gleicher [16].