Influence of Maternal Age and Ovarian Reserve on the Decision to Continue or to Cancel IVF Cycles in Patients with One or Two Large Follicles: a Dual Effect.

This study aimed to study whether IVF stimulation that results in one or two mature follicles should proceed to oocyte retrieval. This is a retrospective cohort study conducted at McGill University Health Center on 459 patients who underwent IVF treatment between 2011 and 2014, undergoing hormonal stimulation and monitoring of their ovarian response. The primary outcomes were pregnancy and live birth rates.

Human oocytes harboring damaged DNA can complete meiosis I.

Objective: To determine whether human oocytes possess a checkpoint to prevent completion of meiosis I when DNA is damaged.

Design: DNA damage is considered a major threat to the establishment of healthy eggs and embryos. Recent studies found that mouse oocytes with damaged DNA can resume meiosis and undergo germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD), but then arrest in metaphase of meiosis I in a process involving spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) signaling.

Relationship between pre-ICSI meiotic spindle angle, ovarian reserve, gonadotropin stimulation, and pregnancy outcomes.

Purpose: The goals of this study are to analyze the clinical pregnancy rate as a function of the pre-intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) oocyte spindle angle and determine factors which can be associated with different spindle angles, if clinically relevant.

Methods: Fifty-eight patients, who underwent their first ICSI cycle from January to December 2013, were included. Eight hundred thirty oocytes were collected, and 648 were metaphase II (MII) on retrieval day.

Successful live birth after transfer of blastocyst and frozen blastocyst from rescue ICSI with application of polarized light microscopy for spindle examination on unfertilized eggs.

This article aims to report successful live births after transfer of fresh blastocyst or vitrified/warmed blastocyst derived from intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) on day-1 of unfertilized mature eggs (so-called "rescue ICSI") with spindle examination using polarized light microscopy. Two couples who had rescue ICSI performed achieved a positive pregnancy result after the transfer of a fresh or vitrified blastocyst. The two pregnancies led to the live births of a healthy baby boy of 2.

Spindle examination in unfertilized eggs using the polarization microscope can assist rescue ICSI.

Rescue ICSI can induce a high rate of 3 pronuclei (PN) formation from double insemination in eggs already fertilized by IVF but lacking signs of normal pronuclear formation. This study was performed to determine whether the number of 3PN embryos could be reduced by using the polarization microscope for rescue intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). As a study group, after conventional insemination, 81 unfertilized mature oocytes from 11 couples were checked for the number of spindles using the polarization microscope.