title: Biochemical pregnancy during assisted conception: a little bit pregnant.
abstract: Assisted reproductive technology (ART) has revolutionized the management of subfertility as many couples who previously had no hope of achieving a pregnancy are able to do so. Several factors contribute to the successful outcome of assisted conception. The period of waiting for the pregnancy test after assisted conception could be very crucial to the patient. One outcome of assisted conception could be a positive pregnancy test which could lead to a clinical pregnancy resulting in a live birth, clinical pregnancy resulting in a miscarriage or a biochemical pregnancy. A negative pregnancy test, failure to fertilise and failure to respond to stimulation usually lead to a big blow to the couple. As far as biochemical pregnancy is concerned, its exact aetiology remains unknown. There are no definite predictive factors for its occurrence that can be remedied in subsequent cycles. Several associated aetiologies have been suggested in the literature. This review aims at addressing the issue of biochemical pregnancy after assisted conception as a prelude to conducting further studies to assess if there are any predictive factors for its occurrence.
authors.affiliation: Homerton Fertility Centre, Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Homerton Row, E9 6SR, London, UK.
authors.forename: John Jude Kweku
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Annan
authors.forename: Anil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gudi
authors.forename: Priya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bhide
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Roy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Homburg
keywords: Assisted reproductive technology; Beta human chorionic gonadotropin; Biochemical pregnancy; Embryo transfer; In vitro fertilisation; Intracytoplasmic sperm injection