Embryo catheter loading and embryo culture techniques: results of a worldwide Web-based survey.

Purpose: To identify trends in embryo catheter loading and embryo culture techniques performed worldwide.

Methods: A retrospective evaluation using the results of a web-based survey, (IVF Worldwide ( www.IVF-worldwide.

At what age can human oocytes be obtained?

Objective: To determine whether oocyte retrieval and in vitro maturation (IVM) is effective in girls undergoing fertility preservation before cancer treatment.

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: Tertiary university medical center.

Should ovarian cryopreservation be offered to girls with cancer.

Current therapy of childhood cancer makes long-term survival a realistic outcome for most patients. However, some treatment regimens entail a significant risk of infertility. No established method for preservation of female fertility is currently available.

Sibling oocyte submission to IVF and ICSI in unexplained infertility patients: a potential assay for gamete quality.

In order to reduce total fertilization failure in unexplained infertility, sibling oocytes were submitted to both conventional IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Two groups of ICSI embryos were compared in unexplained infertility patients: those derived from ICSI when IVF had failed to fertilize, and those derived from ICSI while their sibling oocytes were fertilized by IVF. The outcome of oocytes fertilized exclusively by ICSI (essential ICSI, n = 749) was compared with those fertilized both by IVF and ICSI (non-essential ICSI, n = 957) in all IVF patients treated for unexplained infertility at the Hadassah Hospital (1999-2002).

Mouse embryos generated from frozen-thawed oocytes can successfully survive a second cryopreservation.

Background: To determine whether mouse embryos generated from frozen-thawed oocytes can successfully survive a second cryopreservation.

Methods: Immature C57BL6*BALB/c female mice underwent superovulation and the collected oocytes were divided into three groups. Group A oocytes (n = 107) underwent IVF.

Hyaluronic acid can successfully replace albumin as the sole macromolecule in a human embryo transfer medium.

Objective: To examine the effect on pregnancy and implantation rates when highly purified, fermentation-based hyaluronic acid was the only macromolecule supplement to the transfer medium in a human IVF program.

Design: Prospective randomized study.

Setting: In vitro fertilization center in an academic medical institution.