Does laparoscopic ovarian diathermy change clomiphene-resistant PCOS into clomiphene-sensitive?

Objective: To test the role of laparoscopic ovarian diathermy (LOD) in improving the ovarian response to clomiphene citrate (CC) in clomiphene-resistant polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients.

Methods: The study comprised of 234 CC-resistant PCOS women who were treated with LOD. Eighty-four patients that remained anovulatory after LOD received 100-150 mg CC for 5 days starting from day 3 of induced menstruation for 1-3 cycles. Outcome measures were; ovulation, pregnancy, miscarriage and live birth rates.

Results: Ovulation occurred in 80/162 cycles (49.4%) and in 30/84 patients (35.7%). Pregnancy occurred in 13/84 patients (15.5%) and in 13/80 cycles (16.2%). Miscarriage and live birth rates were 23.1 and 76.9%, respectively. Ovulatory women showed significantly lower baseline BMI (P < 0.001), Ferriman-Gallwey score (P = 0.02), testosterone (P = 0.03), higher sex hormone binding globulin and lower free androgen index (P < 0.001) compared with anovulatory women. The baseline fasting insulin was statistically significantly lower and fasting glucose:insulin ratio was statistically significantly higher (P = 0.003, 0.002) in ovulatory compared with anovulatory patients.

Conclusions: LOD improves the ovarian response to CC in at least one-third of CC-resistant patients who remained anovulatory following LOD especially in women who are less hyperandrogenic and less insulin resistant.