A short protocol is just a GnRH antagonist based strategy which essentially you have a period and then you start injections the next day or the day after day three of your cycle and then you’ll add in that GnRH antagonist and you’ll kind of a few days later. People can do that on a fixed basis where it’s always the same day the cycle or if it’s doing what is called “dynamic monitoring” and doing what a follicle gets to a specific size. That’s a short base in a sense because it can all be done within two weeks – you start your period and you start stimulation.
Regarding the short protocol for IVF, it is one of the most used these days. You start with the menstrual cycle and on the second or third day you can program it with contraceptive pills and basically, the protocol starts with a regular dose of gonadotropin, the most common dose is two twenty five. There is literature and papers that say to give more than that but it is not good enough anymore. You begin with this dose for 9 to 10 days and you also go through a number of ultrasounds to control the growth of follicles in the ovaries. After getting the right size of follicles, more than 2 or 3 at 17 millimetres, then you can start the trigger, which is the final moderation and you can get the oocyte in the pickup. You then carry on to the operating room and under sedation, with a small needle, you enter the ovary and you retrieve the oocyte from the follicles. This is the short protocol for IVF and is the most common.
