Prognostic factors for patients undergoing vitrified-warmed human embryo transfer cycles: a retrospective cohort study

Abstract

We examined the prognostic factors for pregnancy in 210 vitrified-warmed embryo transfer (ET) cycles in 121 patients. The univariate analysis showed that age, gravida, the number of cycles associated with infertility caused by endometriosis, the number of previous assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment cycles, and the number of ICSI procedures were significantly lower in pregnant cycles compared with non-pregnant cycles. The percentages of ET using at least one intact embryo and of ET using at least one embryo that had developed further after warming were significantly higher in pregnant cycles compared with non-pregnant cycles. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that previous ART treatment cycles, ET with at least one intact embryo, and ET using at least one embryo that had developed further were independent prognostic factors for pregnancy in vitrified-warmed ET cycles. We conclude that fewer previous ART treatment cycles, ET using at least one intact embryo, and ET with embryos that have developed further after warming might be favourable prognostic factors for pregnancy in vitrified-warmed ET cycles.

Keywords:

• Assisted reproductive technology
• cryopreservation
• vitrification
• slow freezing
• embryo transfer
• prognostic factors

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funding

This study was supported by Grants-in-Aid for General Science Research No. 25462550 to Toshifumi Takahashi and No. 26462474 to Hideki Igarashi.