Two singleton live births after the transfer of cryopreserved-thawed day-3 embryos following an unstimulated in-vitro oocyte maturation cycle

Abstract

The objective was to report two singleton live births after transfer of cryopreserved-thawed day-3 embryos resulting from an unstimulated in-vitro oocyte maturation (IVM) cycle. A 29-year-old female patient with polycystic ovaries (PCO) underwent an unstimulated IVM cycle. A total of 43 prophase-I oocytes were retrieved; 21 oocytes achieved in-vitro maturation to the metaphase-II stage at 36 h post-retrieval and 18 oocytes were fertilized (two pronuclei) after intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Two embryos were transferred in the fresh cycle (no pregnancy) and 15 day-3 embryos (post-oocyte microinjection) were cryopreserved. Subsequently, the patient became pregnant after each of two embryo transfer cycles from cryopreserved-thawed embryos (three and two embryos transferred respectively), with delivery of a single, term, healthy baby after each transfer. It is concluded that healthy live births were documented in a PCO patient undergoing unstimulated IVM followed by transfer of day-3 cryopreserved (slow-freeze)-thawed embryos, adding these methodologies to the armamentarium of assisted reproductive technologies.