Single or double embryo transfer? Decision-making process in patients participating in an oocyte donation program

Abstract

In IVF/ICSI programs, after receiving the information about the success results of single embryo transfer (SET) vs double embryo transfer (DET) and the risks of multiple pregnancy, a significant number of patients opt for SET. Up to date, no comparable studies have been published in oocyte recipients. The aim of this study was to evaluate if the counseling provided to oocyte recipients influence their decision on the number of embryos to be transferred. Fifty-five recipients expressed their preference and the relevance for the decision-making process that they attribute to certain factors through an anonymous questionnaire completed pre and post-counseling. Before counseling, 32 out of 55 recipients preferred DET, 13 preferred SET and 10 were undecided. From the 32 recipients who preferred DET, 16 (50%) maintained their preference after counseling, 13 (40.6%) changed their decision to SET and 3 (9.4%) changed to undecided (McNemar’s test: p < .05). After counseling, the patients attached less importance to the probability of pregnancy and more importance to maternal and perinatal risks (p < .05). We conclude that after counseling, a significant number of recipients changed their preferences from DET to SET.

摘要

在IVF / ICSI程序中, 在收到有关单胚胎移植（SET）与双胚胎移植（DET）成功结果以及多次妊娠风险的信息之后, 相当多的患者选择SET。迄今为止, 还没有关于卵母细胞接受者的可比较研究发表。这项研究的目的是评估提供给卵母细胞接受者的咨询意见是否影响他们对要移植的胚胎数量的决定。五十五名接受者通过在咨询前和咨询后完成的匿名问卷调查表达了他们的偏爱以及他们对决策过程的相关性, 他们将决策归因于某些因素。在咨询之前, 这55位接受者中, 有32位倾向于DET, 13位倾向于SET和10位尚未决定。在接受了DET的32位接受者中, 有16位（50％）在咨询后保持了自己的偏好, 其中13位（40.6％）改变了对SET的决定, 而3位（9.4％）改变为未决定（McNemar的检验：p <.05）。咨询后, 患者对妊娠可能性的重视程度降低, 而对孕产妇和围产期风险的重视程度更高（p <.05）。我们得出的结论是, 在咨询之后, 大量的接受者将其偏好从DET更改为SET。

The Chinese abstracts are translated by Prof. Dr. Xiangyan Ruan and her team: Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100026, China.

Keywords:

• Counseling
• oocyte donation
• multiple pregnancy
• single embryo transfer
• double embryo transfer

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Mònica Reig for her assistance with the translation of the manuscript, Sandra Garcia for statistical analysis of the data and Javier Pino for his help in the initial phase of the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.