Testosterone is frequently prescribed off-label for women with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF), despite limited evidence supporting its effectiveness and safety. To address this uncertainty, a study evaluated whether pretreatment with transdermal testosterone gel improves clinical pregnancy rates before IVF in 290 women aged 18–43 years with DOR. The study found that pretreatment with 5.5 mg daily transdermal testosterone for approximately nine weeks before ovarian stimulation did not significantly improve clinical pregnancy rates compared with placebo in women with diminished ovarian reserve undergoing IVF.
Clinical pregnancy occurred in 15.7% of women in the testosterone group and 14.9% in the placebo group (risk ratio 1.05). All participants underwent a long GnRH-agonist protocol with 300 IU/day of highly purified human menopausal gonadotropin…
