Pregnancy rates following frozen embryo transfer (ET) in women failing to conceive despite fresh ET in women using low dosage follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) protocol for follicular maturation of several eggs.

Purpose: To determine the pregnancy rate following frozen embryo transfer using embryos derived from low dosage follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) stimulation protocols in women aged < 42 who did not have diminished egg reserve as evidenced by a day 3 serum FSH < or =12 mIU/ml.

Methods: A retrospective review was performed evaluating pregnancy rates on frozen embryo transfers from women who usually had diminished egg reserve and thus used no more than 150 IU of FSH. The pregnancy rates were calculated on the first frozen embryo transfer of women failing to successfully conceive on the fresh embryo transfer.

Results: The clinical and live delivered pregnancy rates per transfer were 33.3% (14/42) and 23.8%. The implantation rate was 20.0%. Thirty-one percent of the transfers were in women aged 40-42.

Conclusions: These data show that despite the fact that with minimal stimulation protocols, the remaining frozen embryos are of lesser quality because of de-selection, nevertheless, it is worth transferring these embryos.