Are my Eggs Good Enough for IVF?

Egg quality does not seem to affect IVF outcome in terms of live birth rates in women with endometriosis.

Key Points

Highlights: 

• Live birth rates in women with endometriosis who underwent IVF using their own eggs or donor eggs seem to be the same.

Importance:

• Egg quality may have minimal or no effect on live birth rates following IVF.

What's done here:

• Researchers analyzed live birth outcomes of more than thirteen thousand IVF cycles in women with endometriosis.

Key results:

• There were no differences in terms of live birth outcomes following IVF in women with endometriosis who used their own eggs and those who used donor eggs, whether fresh or frozen.

Limitations:

• The stage of endometriosis, the number of eggs, or the presence of adenomyosis were not taken into account in this study.

Lay Summary

There does not seem to be any difference in the rate of live births between women with endometriosis who became pregnant following IVF using their own eggs or eggs obtained from a donor. This suggests that oocyte quality may not affect IVF outcomes in terms of live birth rates in women with the disease.

Endometriosis is a disease that can cause infertility in many patients. IVF is therefore an option used by many women with the disease. However, it is known that the disease also leads to lower implantation and pregnancy rates following IVF though it is not known whether this is related to oocyte quality or the lining of the uterus. 

The present study was designed to address just that. A team of researchers led by Dr. Sesh Kamal Sunkara from the Division of Women's Health, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine at King's College London in the UK analyzed more than 13,000 IVF cycles in which women undergoing the procedure all had endometriosis. Of these, 12,856 women used their own eggs, while 758 used donor eggs.

The researchers analyzed live birth outcomes in all women and adjusted the results for the number of IVF cycles the women underwent in the past, previous live birth, the period of treatment, the day on which the embryos were transferred, their number, and whether they were fresh or frozen.

The results showed that there was no significant difference in live birth rates between women who received donor eggs and those who used their own eggs, whether they were fresh or frozen.

These findings suggest that oocyte quality may have “minimal or no effect” on the outcome of IVF in women with endometriosis, according to the authors of the study.

It is important to note that the severity of endometriosis and the number of oocytes were not taken into consideration in this study and may affect the findings. Moreover, the potential effect of adenomyosis, which often coexists with endometriosis was also not considered.

This article was published in the June 2022 issue of the journal named Human Reproduction Open.

Research Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35747401/