Editor's Choice
Insights from clinical experience in treating IVF poor responders
‘Poor responders’ is a term used to describe a subpopulation of IVF patients who do not respond well to ovarian stimulation with gonadotrophins. While there is no standard definition of a poor responder, these patients tend to be of advanced maternal age (≥40 years), have a history of poor ovarian response with conventional stimulation protocols, and/or have low ovarian reserve. Despite the heterogeneity of this patient group, there are characteristics and needs common to many poor responders that can be addressed through a holistic approach.Subfertility factors rather than assisted conception factors affect cognitive and behavioural development of 4-year-old singletons
Research on cognitive and behavioural development of children born after assisted conception is inconsistent. This prospective study aimed to explore underlying causal relationships between ovarian stimulation, in-vitro procedures, subfertility components and child cognition and behaviour. Participants were singletons born to subfertile couples after ovarian stimulation IVF (n = 63), modified natural cycle IVF (n = 53), natural conception (n = 79) and singletons born to fertile couples (reference group) (n = 98).Dual ovarian stimulation is a new viable option for enhancing the oocyte yield when the time for assisted reproductive technnology is limited
Ovarian stimulation improves assisted reproductive technology outcome by increasing the number of oocytes available for insemination and in-vitro handling. A recent Duplex protocol features a dual stimulation, with the second stimulation started immediately after the first oocyte retrieval. Remarkably, the Duplex protocol is unexpectadly well tolerated by women and provides twice as many oocytes and embryos as a regular antagonist protocol in less than 30 days.Androgen receptor CAG repeat length is associated with ovarian reserve but not with ovarian response
The human androgen receptor (AR) gene contains a highly polymorphic CAG repeat sequence within exon 1. In-vitro studies have shown a relationship between CAG repeats in the AR gene and its transactivation potential. This variation in length may play a role in anovulatory infertility. The objective of this study was to investigate whether CAG polymorphism of the AR gene has a predictive value for ovarian reserve, response and cycle outcome in an egg donor programme. CAG length of the AR gene was determined in 147 oocyte donors.Freeze-all can be a superior therapy to another fresh cycle in patients with prior fresh blastocyst implantation failure
Despite numerous advances in assisted reproduction, implantation failure remained the most common outcome following embryo transfer in 2011 (Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, 2011). Most fresh autologous embryo transfers in 2011 failed to result in live birth, and national average implantation rates ranged from 4–36%, depending on maternal age. Therefore, a large proportion of patients undergoing IVF experience at least one fresh embryo transfer cycle resulting in implantation failure.
