IMR Press / CEOG / Volume 47 / Issue 5 / DOI: 10.31083/j.ceog.2020.05.5228
Open Access Original Research
Effect of extended embryo culture after thawing on clinical pregnancy rate
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1 Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21221, Egypt
2 Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, Dar Ismael hospital, Alexandria, 21245, Egypt
*Correspondence: shgaafar301@yahoo.com (SHERIF SALAH GAAFAR)
Clin. Exp. Obstet. Gynecol. 2020, 47(5), 764–768; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.ceog.2020.05.5228
Submitted: 20 April 2019 | Accepted: 15 July 2019 | Published: 15 October 2020
Copyright: © 2020 Gaafar et al. Published by IMR press
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Abstract

Purpose: This randomized controlled trial is aiming to compare the clinical pregnancy rate of immediate versus delayed post thawing embryo transfer in frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycles. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on 150 FET cycles in which embryos were vitrified on day 2 or 3. After thawing, cases with more than 50% blastomere loss were excluded as well as cases with recurrent implantation. The endometrium was prepared by programmed estrogen/progesterone method. After thawing, cases were randomized to immediate embryo transfer or extended culture for 18-72 hours before transfer. Results: Number of cryopreserved embryos and survival rates were similar in both groups. Survival rates was above 95% in both groups and in the extended culture group 72.1% of embryos resumed miosis. Clinical pregnancy rate was 50.7% in immediate transfer group and 41.3% in the extended culture group. Conclusion: Extended culture after thawing helps in embryo selection but does not increase clinical pregnancy rate.

Keywords
ICSI
Frozen embryo transfer
Thawing
Extended culture
Blastocyst transfer
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