Blastocyst transfer for patients with multiple assisted reproduction treatment failures: preliminary experience

This preliminary study reports the results obtained from a patient group in which blastocyst culture and transfer were performed, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of introducing blastocyst transfer in a clinic. Twenty-six patients who had failed to achieve a pregnancy in previous in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatments were offered the choice of a fresh cycle with culture to the blastocyst stage. Of the 26 patients who elected to attempt blastocyst culture, 11 opted to have transfer on day 2 or day 3 due to low numbers of embryos. Of the 15 patients who proceeded to blastocyst culture, 46.2% of the embryos cultured reached the blastocyst stage or later and eight of the patients achieved a clinical pregnancy. More oocytes were collected in this patient group, hence the chances of obtaining blastocysts were higher. Offering blastocyst culture to patients with a reasonable chance of success who have had previous multiple assisted reproduction failures is an acceptable way of introducing blastocyst culture into practice.