title: Blastocyst transfer for patients with multiple assisted reproduction treatment failures: preliminary experience.
abstract: This preliminary study reports the results obtained from a patient group in which blastocyst culture and transfer were performed, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of introducing blastocyst transfer in a clinic. Twenty-six patients who had failed to achieve a pregnancy in previous in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatments were offered the choice of a fresh cycle with culture to the blastocyst stage. Of the 26 patients who elected to attempt blastocyst culture, 11 opted to have transfer on day 2 or day 3 due to low numbers of embryos. Of the 15 patients who proceeded to blastocyst culture, 46.2% of the embryos cultured reached the blastocyst stage or later and eight of the patients achieved a clinical pregnancy. More oocytes were collected in this patient group, hence the chances of obtaining blastocysts were higher. Offering blastocyst culture to patients with a reasonable chance of success who have had previous multiple assisted reproduction failures is an acceptable way of introducing blastocyst culture into practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sakkas
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Percival
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: D'Arcy
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lenton
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sharif
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Afnan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000502:physiology; D046149:Embryo Culture Techniques; D004624:Embryo Transfer / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome