Design: A prospective randomized controlled study carried out at Al Azhar ART unit in the International Islamic
center for population studies and research (IICPSR) Al Azhar university, from July 2005 to March 2007.
Objective : To compare the effectiveness of low cost Protocol versus the short (flare up) protocol.
Methods: Two hundreds and thirty five couples have been recruited in this study, all of them were planned for an ICSI
either due to male subfertility of unexplained infertility.
Results: The short protocol was found to have significantly higher number of oocyles as well as the available embryos
for transfer than in low cost protocol. The Low cost protocol was found to be of very low cost than (he short protocol
(in regard to the total number of hMG ampoules used per cycle) (P<0.001). Pregnancy rale was found to be slightly
higher in the short protocol (17%) than the low cosl protocol (15%), yet this was statistically insignificant (P = 0.7).
Conclusion: The low cost protocol is less expensive than the short protocol so, it can be used as an alternative to the
short protocol especially in couples undergoing an ICSI and/or TESE, aiming to reduce the cost.