No abstract

These results suggest that the presence of dispersed CCs at oocyte collection may be positively correlated with the rates of oocyte maturation and blastocysts in HCG-primed IVM cycles. In addition, the expression of LH receptor in CCs may be correlated with the CC pattern of oocytes at collection.

Natural cycle IVF produced the world first successful live birth, but slowly this treatment has been replaced by ovarian stimulated cycle IVF, because it has been believed ovarian stimulated cycle IVF will increase the number of available embryos for transfer. Therefore, it directly increases the chance of pregnancy from the treatment cycle. However, ovarian stimulation is always associated with side effects. The recovery of immature oocytes followed by in-vitro maturation (IVM) and IVF is an attractive alternative to stimulated cycle IVF. IVM treatment provides a successful option to infertile women with polycystic ovaries and polycystic ovary syndrome. It is now possible to combine natural cycle IVF with IVM as an alternative for a selected group of women with various causes of infertility without recourse to ovarian stimulation.

Chian (2012) Comparison of pregnancy outcomes in natural cycle IVF/M treatment with or without mature oocytes retrieved at time of egg collection, Systems Biology in Reproductive Medicine, 58:3, 154-159, DOI: 10.3109/19396368.2012.655403 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10. 3109/19396368.2012.655403 The objective of this study is to compare the pregnancy and live birth rates of a natural cycle in vitro fertilization (IVF) combined with in vitro maturation (IVM) treatment (natural cycle IVF/M) by the presence or absence of mature oocytes retrieved. Infertile women were divided into two groups: (A) patients with mature oocytes found at retrieval and (B) patients with only immature oocytes at retrieval. Patients of group A were further divided into three subgroups: (A1) mature oocytes retrieved from both the leading and the small follicles, (A2) mature oocytes retrieved from the leading follicles only, and (A3) mature oocytes retrieved from the small follicles only. Pregnancy and implantation rates were compared. The results indicate that the clinical pregnancy rates were 40.1% (126/ 314) and 34.5% (19/55) for groups A and B, respectively. There were no differences in pregnancy rates among the subgroups: A1 = 44.0% (66/150), A2 = 34.9% (30/86), and A3 = 38.5% (30/78). In addition there were no differences in implantation rates among the groups (16.2% = 139/859, 15.0% = 22/147, 16.8% = 69/410, 14.7% = 34/232, and 16.6% = 36/217, respectively). However, the live birth and miscarriage rates were significantly different between the group A and group B (29.6% = 93/314 vs. 16.4% = 9/55 and 26.2% = 32/ 126 vs. 52.6% = 10/19, respectively). In conclusion, for natural cycle IVF/M treatment, although the clinical pregnancy rates are not different regarding the retrieval of mature oocytes or the time of the egg retrieval, the live birth rate is higher (P < 0.05) when the mature oocytes are obtained at the time of the egg retrieval.

This report describes a successful pregnancy and delivery following oocyte activation with strontium chloride (SrCl2) in couples with repeated complete fertilization failure or low fertilization rates even after calcium ionophore treatment. Eight infertile couples who showed complete fertilization failure or low fertilization rates after conventional intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and calcium ionophore treatment. When the results of fertilization were not satisfactory in the cycles, the oocytes were artificially activated by SrCl2 for the next attempts. Oocyte activation with SrCl2 significantly increased the fertilization rates, when compared with conventional ICSI or calcium ionophore treatment (61.7% vs. 20.0% or 25.3%, respectively). There was significant increase in the proportions of good-quality cleaved embryos (50.0% vs. 0% or 12.5%, respectively). The rate of surplus embryos that developed to blastocyst stage increased in SrCl2-treated oocytes, when compared with that in ICSI with or without calcium ionophore treatment (25.7% vs. 0% or 9.1%, respectively). Five successful pregnancies were attained after oocyte activation with SrCl2, of which eight healthy children were born. Physical and mental development of the children were normal from birth to 60 months. These results suggest that SrCl2 in treatment should be considered as an effective method for artificial oocyte activation (AOA) to improve fertilization rates and embryo quality in cases with complete fertilization failure or low fertilization rates after calcium ionophore treatment.