Blockeel C

Diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) is common in women with infertility and is associated with poorer in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcomes. Testosterone is widely used off-label in this patient group, although evidence for its efficacy and sa…

RESEARCH QUESTION: Are pregnancies in female same-sex couples at higher risk when using reception of oocytes from partner (ROPA) compared with intrauterine insemination (IUI)? DESIGN: A retrospective, single-centre, matched cohort study wa…

The aim of this study was to investigate whether gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) pretreatment has a positive effect on pregnancy outcomes in women with adenomyosis who were undergoing a frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycle. A …

BACKGROUND: Morphological embryo assessment, time-lapse imaging or PGT-A can prioritize an embryo for transfer in IVF/ICSI cycles. Nevertheless, there remains potential to enhance the efficiency of ART cycles and reduce the time-to-pregnanc…

Children conceived through assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have an elevated risk of lower birthweight, yet the underlying cause remains unclear. Our study explores mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variants as contributors to birthweight d…

INTRODUCTION: A Delphi consensus was performed to evaluate expert opinions on the management of key aspects of ovarian stimulation. METHODS: A Scientific Committee developed eleven statements for patient profiles corresponding to predicted…

RESEARCH QUESTION: Does a frozen-embryo transfer in an artificially-prepared endometrium (FET-HRT) cycle yield similar clinical pregnancy rate with 7 days of oestrogen priming compared to 14 days? DESIGN: This is a single-centre, randomize…

It is generally accepted that microorganisms can colonize a non-pathological endometrium. However, in a clinical setting, endometrial samples are always collected by passing through the vaginal-cervical route. As such, the vaginal and cervi…

PURPOSE: To evaluate the association between serum progesterone (P) at the day of ovulation trigger and neonatal birthweight in singletons born after frozen-thawed embryo transfer in segmented ART cycles. METHODS: A retrospective multicent…

PURPOSE: Does cell loss (CL) after vitrification and warming (V/W) of day 3 embryos have an impact on live birth rate (LBR) and neonatal outcomes? METHOD: This retrospective analysis includes cleavage stage day 3 embryos vitrified/warmed b…

ObjectiveTo observe the real-world utilization patterns, effectiveness and safety profile of follitropin delta in women ≥18 years naïve to ovarian stimulation undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI…

STUDY QUESTION: Does oocyte vitrification adversely affect the health of 2-year-old children compared with peers born after use of fresh oocytes in a donation programme? SUMMARY ANSWER: The growth and health of 2-year-old children born aft…

The prolonged lockdown of health services providing high-complexity fertility treatments -as currently recommended by many reproductive medicine entities- is detrimental for society as a whole, and infertility patients in particular. Global…

Background: The need for endocrine monitoring in artificial cycles for frozen embryo transfer (FET) remains unclear and, more specifically, the value of the late-proliferative phase serum estradiol (E2) levels is with conflicting evidence i…

BACKGROUND: The major difference between a natural cycle and an artificially prepared cycle is the lack of luteinizing hormone (LH) peak in the latter. The LH/hCG receptors were identified to express in human endometrium and evidences of ex…

Despite the considerate progress to which assisted reproduction technology (ART) has been subject since 1978, some issues remain unresolved. Notably, the clinical management of patients with a poor ovarian response is still a challenge in e…

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether ICSI offers any benefit compared with IVF in different ovarian response categories in case of non-male factor infertility. METHODS: This is a retrospective multicenter analysis using individual patient data, co…

Research Question: What is the effect of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)-agonist treatment on serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH)? Design: This prospective cohort study conducted in a tertiary university hospital comprised patients (n …

Since the introduction of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonists, an extensive amount of literature investigating the role of the downregulation protocols on pregnancy outcomes has been published. However, these studies were main…

Several infertile patients, who may even represent around 40% of the infertile cohort, may respond "suboptimally" (4-9 oocytes retrieved) following IVF, despite being predicted as normal responders. The aim of our longitudinal study was to …

BACKGROUND: Animal studies have demonstrated better embryo development in vivo than in vitro. This pilot study tested the feasibility of using a novel in utero culture system (IUCS) to obtain normal human fertilization and embryo developmen…