prolonged gnrh suppression period in controlled ovarian hyperstimulation cycles: impacts on ivf outcomes?

background: prolonged gnrh-a administration in ivf cycles may have some advantages related to the treatment outcomes. objective: in this study, we aimed to analyse the effect of prolonged gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist (gnrh-a) administration on controlled ovarian hyperstimulation outcomes of in vitro fertilization (ivf) patients. materials and methods: in this retrospective study, 55 patients with a gnrh-a administration period more than 10 days were compared with 55 patients whose same period was ?10 days with respect to the demographic characteristics, metaphase ii (mii) oocyte ratio, grade i (gi) embryo ratio, blastocyst ratio, fertilization, implantation, and the clinical pregnancy rates. results: the mean hospital visit count of the prolonged gnrh-a patients was 2.6±0.4. as we expected, total gnrh-a doses used during hypophyseal down regulation were significantly different between the groups (p<0.0001). mii oocyte, g1 embryo and the blastocyst ratios were also significantly different between the groups (p<0.0001; p<0.01 and p<0.05). all the other parameters were insignificant. conclusion: prolonged gnrh-a administration during ovarian suppression in ivf patients may have positive impacts on the oocytes and the embryos, but this affect may not be observed in the overall pregnancy rates.