Progress with oocyte cryopreservation.

Purpose Of Review: This article reviews human oocyte cryopreservation, one of the most stimulating challenges of assisted reproduction technology. Since the first steps in assisted reproduction technology, researchers have pursued this goal, to greatly improve the management of infertility treatments. This present review depicts the present state of research and clinical applications of this methodology.

Use of laser-assisted intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in patients with a history of poor ICSI outcome and limited metaphase II oocytes.

In this study, laser-assisted intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) improved the fertilization rate and the embryo quality in patients with a history of poor ICSI outcome and with limited metaphase II oocytes. This technique is less traumatic to the oocytes during the procedure, and the use of the technique may be expanded.

Ovarian cyst formation following GnRH agonist administration in IVF cycles: incidence and impact.

Background: The formation of functional ovarian cysts has been recognized as one of the side effects of GnRH agonist administration. The formation of cysts during IVF treatment may be of no clinical significance or may negatively influence its outcome. The objective of this study was to determine the incidence of ovarian cyst formation following GnRH agonist administration and to examine their effect on IVF outcome.

Clinical experiences of ICSI-ET thawing cycles with embryos cryopreserved at different developmental stages.

Purpose: The aim of our study was to analyze factors including survival, implantation and pregnancy rate, patients' age and BMI, abortions and extra uterine pregnancies that might influence the outcome of ICSI-ET thawing cycles.

Methods: A total of 147 cycles with embryos cryopreserved at different developmental stages were retrospectively evaluated.

Results: No difference was found in the survival, implantation and pregnancy rates of embryos cryopreserved on Day 2-3 and 5.

Fetal reduction in a nontuplet pregnancy: technical and ethical considerations.

A case of a nontuplet pregnancy that was successfully reduced to twins resulting in a good neonatal outcome is described. A 37-year-old woman achieved a nontuplet pregnancy after ovarian stimulation with GnRH-analogues and gonadotrophins in the short protocol and artificial insemination. Reduction of the nontuplet pregnancy to twins was successfully performed in three attempts and delivery by caesarian section was followed on the 32nd week of pregnancy.

Visualization and examination of the meiotic spindle in human oocytes with polscope.

Purpose: The effect of detectability/location of meiotic spindle to fertilization of human MII oocytes and outcome of clinical IVF/ICSI-ET cycles was studied.

Methods: The location of spindle relative to polar body positioned to 6 o'clock was detected with polscope prior to ICSI in oocytes. Data of 83 IVF/ICSI-ET cycle, including pregnancy results, and a total of 1033 oocytes examined were analyzed retrospectively.

Assisted reproductive research: laser assisted hatching and spindle detection (spindle view technique).

Animal experiments are very important for the development of new assisted reproductive techniques (ART) for use in human and animal reproductive medicine. Most technical aspects of reproductive manipulation of humans and animals are very similar, and many components of successful human ART used nowadays have been derived from animal studies. In this study we examined (1) the use of 'non-contact' laser for assisted hatching, (2) whether spindles in living mouse oocytes could safely be imaged/examined by polarisation microscope (polscope) and (3) the influence of environment (e.

A follow-up study of children born after diode laser assisted hatching.

This follow-up study of children born after laser assisted hatching (LAH) with a non-contact laser aims to compile data on karyotypes, deliveries, congenital malformations and growth parameters to evaluate the safety of this new technique. The study design consisted of karyotyping and completion of a standardized questionnaire. Data were analyzed for the first 134 children born after LAH.

Pregnancy and child outcome after assisted reproduction techniques.

The introduction and widespread application of assisted reproduction techniques have raised major concern about the outcome of resulting pregnancies, as well as about the offspring's health. It seems that pregnancies achieved after standard in-vitro fertilization (IVF) bear an increased risk for prematurity and low birth weight. On the other hand, pregnancy outcome of singletons achieved after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and after the transfer of frozen-thawed embryos is similar to that of spontaneously conceived singletons, and pregnancy complications are related only to gestation multiplicity.

Freezing of oocytes.

Storing oocytes is one of the challenges of assisted reproduction which may provide an alternative to embryo cryopreservation. Despite early disappointing results regarding survival, fertilization and cleavage rates, which led to only sporadic pregnancies in more than ten years, the recent introduction of technical modification greatly improved the clinical efficiency, with the birth of several healthy children.

Ongoing pregnancy after intracytoplasmic injection of testicular spermatozoa into cryopreserved human oocytes.

Human oocyte cryopreservation has met with limited success in terms of both survival and subsequent fertilization. We recently reported the first birth of a healthy female infant after intracytoplasmic sperm injection of cryopreserved oocytes. The current report describes the first pregnancy achieved after intracytoplasmic injection of testicular sperm into cryopreserved human oocytes.

Oocyte cryopreservation.

Cryopreservation of human oocytes has been employed with little success in clinical practice, even though it may solve the legal and ethical problems linked to embryo freezing. Various attempts to cryopreserve human oocytes have mostly been unsuccessful, leading to low oocyte survival rates after thawing, and the search for an optimal protocol for oocyte cryopreservation remains elusive. A preliminary study was undertaken to evaluate some of the factors influencing the survival rate of human oocytes and the efficiency of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) as an insemination procedure.