The reproductive outcomes following transfer of blastocysts cultured from thawed cleavage stage embryos
Tahereh Madani,
1,* Poopak eftekhari-yazdi ,
2 Nadia jahangiri,
3 Parvin monsef,
4 Azar yahyaei,
5 Samira vesali ,
6
1. Department of Endocrinology and Female Infertility، Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR
2. Department of Embryology, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR
3. Department of Endocrinology and Female Infertility, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR
4. Department of Endocrinology and Female Infertility, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR
5. Department of Endocrinology and Female Infertility, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR
6. Department of Epidemiology and Reproductive Health, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR
Abstract
Introduction
Many studies have reported that blastocyst transfers result in a better reproductive outcome following art treatment. thus, in ivf practice, there is a shift from early cleavage stage embryo transfer to blastocyst transfer. in this study, an attempt was made to compare pregnancy rate in transfer of thawed cleavage stage embryos and blastocysts cultured from thawed cleavage stage.
Methods
This randomized controlled trial study was conducted between 2015 and 2018, on 213 women undergoing frozen-thawed embryo transfer (fet) cycle. patients with age > 37, previous surgery on the uterus and ovaries, history of recurrent abortion, uterine or sever male factor infertility and poor ovarian reserve excluded from the study. women were randomly assigned to one of the two groups of thawed cleavage embryo transfers (108) and transfers of blastocysts from thawed cleavage embryos (105). the primary outcome measure was clinical pregnancy and secondary outcome measures were rates of implantation, ongoing and miscarriage. for data analysis, spss software was used. in all tests, the significance level was considered less than 0.05.
Results
Both groups were comparable in regards to mean age, body mass index, infertility duration, number of achieved oocytes and mii oocytes, hormone levels, number and quality of frozen-thawed embryos transferred and endometrial thickness on embryo transfer day between groups. no statistically significant differences were found in rates of clinical pregnancy (40.7 vs. 45.7; p= 0.464), implantation (20.7 vs. 25.0; p= 0.256), ongoing pregnancy (40.7 vs. 43.8; p= 0.650) and miscarriage (0 vs. 4.2; p= 0.495) with thawed cleavage embryo transfers compared with transfers of blastocysts from thawed cleavage embryos.
Conclusion
These data suggest that in fet cycles, transfer of blastocysts from thawed cleavage embryos doesn’t seem to produce better reproductive outcomes than thawed cleavage embryo transfers. a further large clinical trial study design is suggested.
Keywords
Blastocyst, cleavage embryo, frozen-thawed embryo transfer
