Gonadorelin acetate is a synthetic version of the naturally occurring gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). It’s a decapeptide (composed of 10 amino acids) that interacts primarily with the pituitary gland. When administered, it stimulates the pituitary’s gonadotrope cells to release two key reproductive hormones:
Luteinizing hormone (LH)；
Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)；
Due to its ability to influence reproductive hormone production, it’s used medically to treat various reproductive disorders. Gonadorelin acetate has multiple indications, including for males and females with congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and females with functional HA. An example of functional HA is the “female athlete triad”, in which they lose their menses. Gonadorelin acetate is also used for women with infertility (idiopathic fertility or infertility related to PCOS) who do not respond to clomid or letrozole. At this point, patients can either do gonadotropin therapy with controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (“essentially IVF [in vitro fertilization]”) or undergo FSH therapy (ovulation induction therapy). However, some patients are deficient in LH, which is responsible for making estradiol. In this case, solo therapies such as Gonal-F? (follitropin alfa) or prominent FSH treatments are insufficient, and patients need to utilize combination FSH and hCG therapies or human menopausal gonadotropins (HMG, “which is the combined FSH and LH”) instead.
