What does IVF downregulation mean ?

I love answering patient's questions about IVF , because I think the more they understand about what we are doing, the better they'll be able to appreciate the difference between a good IVF clinic and a bad IVF clinic.Someone asked me – what does down-regulation mean, and why do we need to do this ?When growing egg during an IVF cycle, we use 2 processes - one is super ovulation, while the other is downregulation. Think of these as the 2 levers which allow us to precisely control your egg production.Super ovulation , as the name suggests, uses hormones to help you to grow lots of eggs. These are natural hormones, and since we give them in a higher dose, they help to prevent your follicles from dying, so that you grow many follicles in the IVF cycle.Down-regulation means we also need to give you another set of hormones , to prevent these follicles from rupturing on their own once they become mature .While we stimulate your ovaries to grow lots of follicles ( which contain the eggs) , we also need to switch off your pituitary at the same time, so that these follicles don't rupture on their own.Down-regulation can either be done by using GnRH agonists, using what is called a long protocol or a short protocol; or by using GnRH antagonists. Both these methods are equally effective, and the advantage of the GnRH antagonists is that you need to take them for fewer days.These injections are given subcutaneously ( under the skin), and are easy to self-administer.You can learn how to...
Source: Dr.Malpani's Blog - Category: Reproduction Medicine Source Type: blogs