E. Van den Abbeel

Establishment of 22 pregnancies after oocyte and embryo donation

Summary. Donated oocytes inseminated with partners semen or donated embryos were transferred on 95 occasions in 28 women without ovarian function and in 21 with functional ovaries. Overall, 22 pregnancies were established, 13 alter the transfer of fresh embryos and nine after the transfer of frozen‐thawed embryos. Eleven of the pregnancies were established in women without ovarian function and 11 in women with functional ovaries. Nine of the pregnancies were established with donated oocytes inseminated with partners semen and 13 with donated embryos. Fifteen healthy infants were born including one set of twins; three pregnancies arc progressing normally and five miscarried.

Closed blastocyst vitrification of biopsied embryos: evaluation of 100 consecutive warming cycles

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to analyse the outcome of closed blastocyst vitrification of embryos biopsied at the cleavage stage. METHODS Vitrification of supernumerary blastocysts was performed using the closed CBS-VIT High Security straws. Warming cycles (n = 100) for patients with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and/or aneuploidy screening in the fresh cycle were analysed. The outcome parameters were morphological survival and transfer rates after warming, clinical pregnancy rate and implantation rate (with fetal heart beat). Clinical outcome was compared with two control groups of (i) vitrified/warming transfer cycles without embryo biopsy and (ii) fresh Day 5 transfer of biopsied embryos. RESULTS In total, 131 blastocysts were warmed with a morphological survival of 83.2% (109/131) and a transfer rate of 79.4% (104/131). Day 5 blastocysts survived significantly better (90.4%) than Day 6 blastocysts (70.8%, P < 0.01). No difference in survival rate was observed between early cavitating (89.2%) and full/expanded blastocysts (93.3%). In nine cycles, no blastocyst was available for transfer. The clinical pregnancy rate was 19.2% (15/78) after single-embryo transfer (SET) and 38.5% (5/13) after double-embryo transfer (DET). In SET, the implantation rate for blastocysts frozen on Day 5 was 13.7% (7/51), which was not different from the implantation rate of Day 6 blastocysts (18.5%, 5/27). The overall implantation rate of vitrified PGD biopsied blastocysts (14.4%) was comparable with that of vitrified blastocysts without biopsy (20.4%), but lower than the implantation rate obtained in the fresh PGD cycles (24.4%). CONCLUSION Blastocysts on Day 5 and Day 6 of development derived from biopsied embryos can be successfully vitrified using a closed system.

Primary Ovarian Failure

Primary ovarian failure occurs under different circumstances as ovarian dysgenesis, premature menopause, and surgical menopause.’ The first pregnancy and birth after steroid-substitution therapy and in vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer (ET) in a patient with primary ovarian failure was reported in 1984: The transfer can be done with fresh embryos, if the ovarian cycles from donor and recipient are s y n c h r o n o u ~ ~ ~ ~ ; if their cycles are asynchronous, pregnancy can be obtained by replacing frozen-thawed embryos.’ The results of oocyte and embryo donation at the Centre for Reproductive Medicine of the Medical Campus of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel are reported.