Are poor responders patients at higher risk for producing aneuploid embryos in vitro?

Purpose: To test the hypothesis that aged women with poor ovarian response express an increase on embryo chromosomal alterations when compared to aged women who presented normal response.

Methods: Couples undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles with preimplantation genetic screening, were subdivided into two groups: Poor Responder group (n = 34), patients who produced ≤4 oocytes; and Normoresponder group (n = 50), patients who produced ≥5 oocytes. Groups were compared regarding cycles' outcomes and aneuploidy frequency.

Results: There were no significant differences between and groups regarding the fertilization rate (p = 0.6861), clinical pregnancy (p = 0.9208), implantation (p = 0.6863), miscarriage (p = 0.6788) and the percentage of aneuploid embryos (p = 0.270). Embryo transfer rate was significantly lower on poor responder group (p = 0.0128) and logistic regression confirmed the influence of poor response on the chance of embryo transfer (p = 0.016).

Conclusions: Aged females responding poorly to gonadotrophins are not at a higher risk for producing aneuploid embryos in vitro.