Experience with diethylstilbestrol-exposed infertile women in a program of in vitro fertilization

Twenty infertile women with a history of diethylstilbestrol exposure in utero were seen in Norfolk for the purpose of in vitro fertilization. Seventeen patients had undergone 25 stimulated cycles with harvest of oocytes by laparoscopy. The serum estradiol response to stimulation in these patients and the number and quality of oocytes retrieved did not differ significantly from those of patients with infertility due to blocked fallopian tubes. There were four pregnancies in 17 patients after 21 cycles of embryo transfers, for a pregnancy rate of 23.5% per patient, or 19% per embryo transfer. Two of the pregnant patients have had a term delivery, one has had a preclinical abortion, and one has a single intrauterine gestation in progress.