Intracytoplasmic sperm injection does not improve the outcome of IVF treatments in patients with advanced maternal age or low oocyte number: A randomized controlled trial.

Introduction: Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) was introduced to achieve fertilization in cases of severe male factor infertility. However, ICSI is often used in cases of non-male factor infertility, such as advanced maternal age or low oocyte number, but the clinical benefit of the method in these indications has not been proven.

Material And Methods: A prospective randomized study was conducted in a university clinic between 2018 and 2020.

Prospective-randomized study comparing clinical outcomes of IVF treatments where embryos were cultured individually or in a microwell group culture dish.

Culturing embryos together in a microdrop of media may improve embryo quality, based on the results of animal studies, however individual identification of the embryos in such a system is not possible. The microwell group culture dish contains 9 or 16 microwells with a minimal well-to-well distance and a specific well morphology that facilitates paracrine and autocrine effects. The microwell group culture dish enables individual identification of the embryos while providing the environment that comes with similar benefits as group culture.

Embryo density may affect embryo quality during in vitro culture in a microwell group culture dish.

Purpose: Culturing embryos in groups is a common practice in mammalian embryology. Since the introduction of different microwell dishes, it is possible to identify oocytes or embryos individually. As embryo density (embryo-to-volume ratio) may affect the development and viability of the embryos, the purpose of this study was to assess the effect of different embryo densities on embryo quality.

[First attempts in the introduction of cryopreservation of ovarian tissues].

Introduction: The oncological treatment may damage ovarian function. To prevent this, it is possible to cryopreserve the ovarian tissue, and to keep the samples for long-term storage. The frozen-thawed tissue could be retransplanted after chemo- or radiotherapy.

Giant oocytes in human in vitro fertilization treatments.

Purpose: Giant oocytes are potential sources of chromosomal abnormalities and should thus never be used in in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) procedures. The presence of giant oocytes may indicate the efficiency of the ovarian stimulation and can refer to the quality of sibling oocytes.

Methods: IVF cycles performed between January 2008 and November 2013 (n = 1521) were divided into two groups: Giant Oocyte Group (GO Group) contained cycles with at least one giant oocyte in the cohort of the retrieved oocytes (n = 37), Normal Group contained cycles with no giant oocytes (n = 1484).

Effect of hyaluronan-enriched embryo transfer medium on IVF outcome: a prospective randomized clinical trial.

Purpose: This prospective randomized study reports the effect of hyaluronan-enriched embryo transfer media on the outcome of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) treatments.

Methods: A total of 581 IVF-ET cycles were included in this study. In the Hyaluronan (HA) group (n = 290), embryos were transferred from hyaluronan-enriched transfer medium.