The pregnancy rates--a retrospective comparison of tubal and uterine embryo transfers.

Tubal embryo transfer (TET), which involves an embryo transfer via the uterine tube, has a possible advantage over uterine embryo transfer (UET) due to more natural timing of embryo exposure to the uterine cavity. This study was carried out to evaluate the pregnancy rate of TET versus UET. Eight hundred and ninety-seven consecutive patients who underwent embryo transfers from July 1997 to June 1999 in Bielefelder Institut fuer Fortpflanzungsmedizin (BIF.), Germany were included in this study. Two hundred and eighty-six pregnancies were achieved in 167 cases (31.4%) after TET and 119 cases (24.6%) after UET. The abortion rate of the TET group was 12.0 per cent while that of the UET group was 23.3 per cent. Our results showed that TET has a significantly increased clinical pregnancy rate and significantly decreased abortion rate. There is an advantage in transferring embryos to the fallopian tube in infertile couples with male factor infertility and unexplained infertility. We recommend TET as the first choice for embryo transfer in infertile couples with patent fallopian tubes and with no evidence of pelvic adhesion and/or endometriosis.