Comparison of blastocyst transfer to day 3 transfer with assisted hatching in the older patient

Abstract

Objective To compare cycle outcomes in similar populations of women over 40 who underwent blastocyst transfer compared with women who had day 3 embryo transfer with assisted hatching (ET/AH). Design Retrospective study Setting University hospital–based program. Patient(s) Eighty-six IVF cycles in women ages 40 to 43 years who had more than three eight-cell embryos on day 3. Intervention(s) On day 3 of embryo culture, patients chose either to undergo blastocyst transfer or day 3 ET/AH. Main outcome measure(s) Pregnancy and cryopreservation rates were recorded. Result(s) In 48 cycles, blastocyst transfer was performed, and in 38 cycles day 3 ET/AH was performed. There was no statistically significant difference between the blastocyst transfer group and the day 3 ET/AH group with respect to age (41.1 ± 0.9 years vs. 41.6 ± 0.8 years), percentage of intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles (29.2% vs. and 27.6%), number of oocytes (14.9 ± 5.6 vs. 12.8 ± 4.0), or number of eight-cell embryos (6.1 ± 2.2 vs. 5.4 ± 1.5). Significantly fewers embryos were transferred per cycle with blastocyst transfer (2.6 ± 1.0) compared with day 3 ET/AH (5.9 ± 2.0). The viable pregnancy rate was similar in the blastocyst transfer group (29.2%) and in the day 3 ET/AH group (26.3%). Embryos for cryopreservation were available in significantly more cycles in the blastocyst transfer group (52.1%) than in the day 3 ET/AH group (21.1%). Cleavage stage arrest occurred only in one cycle. Conclusion(s) Blastocyst transfer appears to be as effective as day 3 ET/AH in older patients with good embryos. Higher cryopreservation rate in the blastocyst transfer group may represent an advantage over day 3 ET/AH. Older women may also benefit from the information that extended culture provides them regarding their oocyte quality.