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Updated: Jun 15, 2026

Fertility Preservation in Patients with Severe Ovarian Dysfunction
Published on: March 25, 2021
Poor prognosis in cycles following "genuine" empty follicle syndrome
Serdar Coskun1, Samira Madan, Ibtihal Bukhari
1Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. serdar@kfshrc.edu.sa
Objectives:
The aim of this study was to investigate the prognosis in future IVF cycles of patients with empty follicle syndrome (EFS).
Study Design:
EFS cases and their future cycles were reviewed. Clinical pregnancy rate per started cycle was taken as the primary outcome in assessing the future outcome in IVF treatment cycles.
Results:
A total of 3023 patients underwent 5238 IVF treatment cycles. Twenty-six patients (1%) had a total of 58 (1%) cycles of EFS. Thirteen women went through 32 further IVF treatment cycles following the diagnosis of EFS, yielding only two clinical pregnancies, giving a clinical pregnancy rate of 6.25% per started cycle. In addition, four patients had recurrence in a total of 15 cycles.
Conclusions:
The occurrence of EFS will indicate poor IVF success in subsequent IVF cycles. Patients with "genuine EFS" should be counselled about the outcome of their future IVF cycles.
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