Growth Hormone and Endometrial Receptivity

Signe Altmäe; Lusine Aghajanova

doi:10.3389/fendo.2019.00653

Growth Hormone and Endometrial Receptivity

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2019 Sep 24:10:653. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2019.00653. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Signe Altmäe^{1

2

3}, Lusine Aghajanova⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
² Competence Centre on Health Technologies, Tartu, Estonia.
³ Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria ibs.GRANADA, Granada, Spain.
⁴ Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Stanford School of Medicine, Sunnyvale, CA, United States.

Abstract

Administration of growth hormone (GH) during ovarian stimulation has shown beneficial effects on in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcomes. It is generally believed that this improvement is due to the stimulating effect of GH on oocyte quality. However, studies are emerging that show possible positive effect of GH administration on endometrial receptivity, thus suggesting an additional potential benefit at the level of the uterus, especially among women with recurrent implantation failure, thin endometrium, and older normal responders. This review summarizes recent data on GH co-treatment effects on endometrium and endometrial receptivity among infertile women undergoing IVF, and proposes possible mechanisms of GH actions in the endometrium.

Keywords: endometrial receptivity; endometrium; growth hormone; in vitro fertilization; infertility; transcriptome.

Publication types

Review