Should all embryos be cultured to blastocyst for advanced maternal age women with low ovarian reserve: a single center retrospective study

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine whether all-blastocyst-culture can benefit advanced maternal age (AMA) patients with low ovarian reserve. We retrospectively analyze AMA patients with low ovarian reserve undergoing IVF/ICSI in Reproductive Medicine Research Center of the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from May 2016 to August 2017. We divide them into group A (all-blastocyst-culture) and group B (none-blastocystculture) based on different culture approach of D3 transferrable embryo. We compared the cumulative biochemical pregnancy rate and cumulative clinical pregnancy rate between them. A total of 261 eligible patients are included, with 151 in group A and 110 in group B. The basic conditions of the two groups show no difference. Cumulative biochemical pregnancy rate/clinical pregnancy rate in group A is higher than that of group B, though not statistically significant (p > .05). After removing patients canceling embryo transfer due to failure in blastocyst culture, the cumulative biochemical pregnancy rate/clinical pregnancy rate in group A is significantly higher than group B (p < .05). Multivariate analysis showed that female age and the number of D3 transferrable embryo are risk factors for the failure of blastocyst culture (OR = 0.672 and 2.270, 95%CI 0.511-0.883 and 1.203-4.284, p = .004 and p = .011, respectively). Hence, we drew to conclusion that all-blastocyst-culture will not adversely affect the pregnancy outcome of AMA patients with low ovarian reserve.

Keywords: Advanced maternal age; all blastocyst culture; cumulative biochemical pregnancy rate; cumulative clinical pregnancy rate; low ovarian reserve.