Frozen embryo transfers can reduce the risk of ectopic pregnancy in patients with non-tubal factor infertility undergoing elective freeze-all procedures

Received: 22-Oct-2019 Accepted Date: Dec 03, 2019; Published: 01-Jan-2020

Citation: Boynukalin FB, Gultomruk M,Serdarogullari M, et al. Frozen embryo transfers can reduce the risk of ectopic pregnancy in patients with nontubal factor infertility undergoing elective freeze-all procedures. J Reprod Biol Endocrinol. 2019;3(2):12-15.

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Abstract

Boynukalin FB, Gultomruk M,Serdarogullari M, et al. Frozen embryo transfers can reduce the risk of ectopic pregnancy in patients with nontubal factor infertility undergoing elective freeze-all procedures. J Reprod Biol Endocrinol. 2019;3(2):12-15. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare the risk of ectopic pregnancy (EP) after Fresh and frozen embryo transfer in non-tubal infertility cases. METHODS: The patients were grouped into three according to the nature of the embryo transfer as Fresh and frozen ET with surplus embryos from a previous fresh (sFET) and frozen ET with embryos from a previous freeze-all cycles (eFET). Cases included in these groups were further categorized according to the day of uterine replacement. Differences between the intrauterine and EP groups were compared with the use of generalized estimation equations (GEEs) with a link function. RESULTS: A total of 13.261 cycles were analyzed and EP occurred in 1.6%, 1%, and 0.9% of clinical pregnancies after fresh ET, sFET, and eFET respectively (p<0.05). EP was found to be 1.4% among day 3 ETs and was 1.3 % among day 5 ETs, which was not statistically significant in fresh and frozen ET cycles (p<0.05). Moreover, transferring embryos either on day 3 or day 5 was found to result in similar EP rates in fresh ET and sFET groups. In the eFET group, day 3 transfer strategy was found to has significantly decreased EP rates (p<0.05). Among day 5 embryo transfers, EP rates displays similar values in fresh and FET groups that have been transferred on day 5, whereas for day 3 transfers, the risk of EP has been shown to be significantly decreased in eFET group (p<0.01) CONCLUSION: Results of this study indicate that, frozen embryo transfers can increase overall cycle outcome by increasing the clinical pregnancy rates and reducing the EP rates. Although both day 3 and day 5 embryo transfers can confer a similar EP risk, embryos in day 3 eFET cycles displayed the lowest risk for EP.