Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 Oct;15(4):173-83.

Recurrent implantation failure: the role of the endometrium

Tanya Timeva  1 , Atanas Shterev  1 , Stanimir Kyurkchiev  2
Affiliations
Review

Recurrent implantation failure: the role of the endometrium

Tanya Timeva et al. J Reprod Infertil. 2014 Oct.

Abstract

The success rate of reproductive treatment methods depends on many different factors. The most important and discussed ones in the literature are maternal age, the causes of infertility, the ovarian response to stimulation, the influence of the male factor and sperm quality, embryo quality and the various uterine pathologies. Some couples fail repeatedly after transferring good quality embryos without any obvious reason and this becomes a major continuing problem after IVF/ICSI procedures. It can be speculated that in these couples, insufficiency of the endometrium might be a possible reason for implantation failure. This review article summarized current literature describing the consecutive endomertial procedures involved in successful embryo implantation. It is believed that efforts to align criteria for definition of recurrent implantation failure (RIF) and attempts to classify different RIF types would develop guidelines for treatment procedures which would result in an increase in patients' opportunities to conceive.

Keywords: Decidua; Embryo implantation; Endometrium; In vitro fertilization; Reproductive physiological phenomena.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Images of high grade embryos, A: Day 3-8-cell embryo; B: Day 5-blastocyst; C: Day 5-hatching blastocyst
Figure 2
Figure 2
The different types of RIF
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic diagram of implantation process
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Coughlan C, Ledger W, Wang Q, Liu F, Demirol A, Gurgan T, et al. Recurrent implantation failure: definition and management. Reprod Biomed Online. 2014;28(1):14–38. - PubMed
    1. Racowsky C. High rates of embryonic loss, yet high incidence of multiple births in human ART: is this paradoxical? Theriogenology. 2002;57(1):87–96. - PubMed
    1. Gnoth C, Godehardt D, Godehardt E, Frank-Herrmann P, Freundl G. Time to pregnancy: results of the German prospective study and impact on the management of infertility. Hum Reprod. 2003;18(9):1959–66. - PubMed
    1. Benkhalifa M, Demirol A, Sari T, Balashova E, Tsouroupaki M, Giakoumakis Y, et al. Autologous embryo-cumulus cells co-culture and blastocyst transfer in repeated implantation failures: a collaborative prospective randomized study. Zygote. 2012;20(2):173–80. - PubMed
    1. Urman B, Yakin K, Balaban B. Recurrent implantation failure in assisted reproduction: how to counsel and manage. A. General considerations and treatment options that may benefit the couple. Reprod Biomed Online. 2005;11(3):371–81. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources