Wednesday, September 13, 2017

ASRM guidelines update: Metformin alone is not the first line of treatment for ovulation induction in women with PCOS


Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine does not recommend Metformin alone for ovulation induction as a first line therapy in women with PCOS. The guidelines were published in Journal Fertility and Sterility Epub ahead of print.

Metformin is a biguanide used as an oral insulin lowering agent in type2 diabetes, but also used enthusiastically in women with PCOS because of shared pathophysiology of insulin resistance in both.

A review of clinical data has however failed to support its use as first-line therapy in PCOS and for treating hirsutism.

A review of RCTs showed that metformin alone only increases the ovulation rate but letrozole and clomiphene citrate alone are more effective in terms of ovulation, pregnancy and live-birth rates.

When Metformin alone was compared with Clomiphene alone, evidence suggested that it is less effective for ovulation and live-birth rates.

Metformin is recommended as a second line therapy in combination with gonadotrophins for clomiphene citrate resistant and/or obese PCOS patients. However, there is good evidence that live pregnancy rate remains the same with this combination.

Metformin can only be used as first line therapy if facilities are not available to monitor the more effective therapies of clomiphene citrate and letrozole.

A 2016 analysis of evidence to help WHO formulate global treatment guidelines for the management of anovulatory infertility in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) also does not recommend metformin alone as first-line therapy. Its use is recommended as an adjunct to GnRH-agonist long protocol IVF or ICSI treatment to reduce the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.

Metformin should be stopped as soon as pregnancy is achieved because it does not help in reducing routine pregnancy complications. The Endocrine Society and NICE Guidelines on PCOS state that the routine use of metformin during pregnancy in women with PCOS is unwarranted, although it may be useful to treat gestational diabetes, and therefore recommended against the use of metformin for the prevention of pregnancy complications.


2 comments:

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