A prospective randomized controlled trial comparing urinary luteinizing hormone dipsticks and basal body temperature charts with time donor insemination

Abstract

Especially now with the almost exclusive use of frozen semen, accurate timing of donor inseminations is an important point to address if a successful donor insemination program is to be established. To examine whether the timing of donor inseminations using urinary luteinizing hormone (LH) dipsticks (group 2) was significantly better than using basal body temperature (BBT) charts (group 1) we performed a prospective randomized controlled trial. There was no significant difference between the cumulative pregnancy rates at 6 months (0.23 versus 0.31 for groups 1 and 2, respectively) or the monthly fecundability (0.04 versus 0.07 for groups 1 and 2, respectively). Using these monthly fecundabilities we have calculated that approximately 378 patients in each arm of the trial would be needed to demonstrate a significant difference between the two groups. We therefore conclude that timing donor inseminations using urinary LH dipsticks does not significantly improve the conception rates.