Conventional IVF performs similarly in women with and without endometriosis

Purpose A reduced oocyte competence has been claimed as one of the factors underlying infertility in women with endometriosis. This idea has justified the hypothesis that intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), rather than conventional IVF (c-IVF), may overcome oocyte impairment and ensure better assisted reproduction technology (ART) outcomes; however, data from the literature are controversial. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare ART success rates following (c-IVF) between women with and without endometriosis in the presence of normozoospermic partners.

This is a retrospective, matched case–control study of 314 patients who underwent c-IVF cycles between January 2014 and December 2020. Women with endometriosis were matched in a 1:1 ratio with patients undergoing ART for other indications, considering age (± 6 months), number of oocytes retrieved (± 1), and study period. The main outcome measures included total fertilization failure, fertilization rate, embryo quality, cumulative clinical pregnancy, and live birth rates.

The fertilization rate and the proportion of women with total fertilization failure did not differ between women with and without endometriosis. Similarly, all other embryological variables did not also differ, except for the number of top-quality cleavage stage embryos which was higher in the endometriosis group. Cumulative clinical pregnancy and live birth rates were similar between women with and without endometriosis.

A diagnosis of endometriosis does not negatively affect the performance of c-IVF; thus, c-IVF can be efficiently used in women affected, unless a male factor is also involved. This issue holds clinical relevance to help operators on their insemination technique decision-making. Similar content being viewed by others Data availability The database analysed during the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Intracytoplasmic sperm injection versus conventional in-vitro fertilisation in couples with infertility in whom the male partner has normal total sperm count and motility: an open-label, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet. 2021;397(10284):1554–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00535-3. Funding This study was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health — Current research IRCCS. M.C. acknowledges the support of Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal do Nível Superior-Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001. Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Ethics declarations Conflict of interest E.S. declares honoraria and grants from Theramex, Merck-Serono and Ferring. All the other authors have nothing to declare. Additional information Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Supplementary information Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material. 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