A high proportion of immature oocytes in a cycle cohort does not compromise embryo development or live birth rates after ICSI.

Study Question: Does a high proportion of immature oocytes impact embryo development and live birth rates in IVF-ICSI cycles?

Summary Answer: While a high proportion of immature oocytes is associated with lower blastocyst formation and reduced preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) utilization, live birth rates remain comparable when key confounders-such as age, BMI, gonadotropin dosage, and metaphase-II (MII) count-are balanced, but cycles with a very low MII proportion resulted in fewer embryo transfers, which is quantitatively limiting, even if embryo quality appears unaffected.

What Is Known Already: Previous studies have linked a lower proportion of mature oocytes (MII) to decreased fertilization rates, abnormal embryo development, and lower pregnancy and live birth rates. However, it remains unclear whether these outcomes are due to quantitative limitations (fewer mature oocytes available) or qualitative deficiencies (intrinsic oocyte quality issues).

Fine particulate matter exposure and sperm DNA fragmentation in US men: a spatial cross-sectional study.

Study Question: Does exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) impact sperm DNA fragmentation?

Summary Answer: Higher PM2.5 exposure was associated with increased sperm DNA fragmentation, with greater effects observed in men of lower socioeconomic status (SES).

Achieving two live births from one ovarian stimulation cycle: the one-and-done approach revisited.

Objective: To identify the proportion of patients who would achieve ≥2 live births after a single in vitro fertilization (IVF) stimulation/embryo creation cycle.

Design: Retrospective cohort study at a university-affiliated infertility practice.

Subjects: Patients undergoing their first IVF cycle between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2022.

Modified versions of natural frozen embryo transfers do not impact live births.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of protocol modifications to "natural" frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycles on live birth DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study.

Subjects: Patients undergoing natural, modified natural, and stimulated single FETs between January 2014 and December 2021 in a single university-affiliated fertility clinic in the United States.

Exposure: Four commonly used modified natural, stimulated, and natural FET protocols were evaluated, including: a true natural cycle with no modifications; vaginal progesterone supplementation only; human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) trigger and vaginal progesterone supplementation; and aromatase inhibitor, hCG trigger, and vaginal progesterone supplementation.

The impact of preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy on time to live birth in in vitro fertilization.

Objective: To determine whether using preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) impacts time to pregnancy resulting in a live birth.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Subjects: Patients who underwent their first oocyte retrieval between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2022, were included.

Pregnancy outcomes with increasing maternal age, greater than 40 years, in donor oocyte cycles.

Study Question: Do IVF outcomes differ in patients over the age of 40 using donor oocytes?

Summary Answer: Even with the use of donor oocytes, maternal age appears to have an impact on live birth (LB) rate and perinatal outcomes.

What Is Known Already: Maternal age has a significant impact on the outcome of IVF, mainly attributed to age-related oocyte chromosomal factors.

Study Design, Size, Duration: This was a retrospective cohort study between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2021.

Looking into the future: a machine learning powered prediction model for oocyte return rates after cryopreservation.

Research Question: Could a predictive model, using data from all US fertility clinics reporting to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, estimate the likelihood of patients using their stored oocytes?

Design: Multiple learner algorithms, including penalized regressions, random forests, gradient boosting machine, linear discriminant analysis and bootstrap aggregating decision trees were used. Data were split into training and test datasets. Patient demographics, medical and fertility diagnoses, partner information and geographic locations were analysed.

Do sperm factors influence embryonic aneuploidy? Long live the oocyte.

Study Question: What is the impact of male age- and sperm-related factors on embryonic aneuploidy?

Summary Answer: Using a 3-fold analysis framework encompassing patient-level, embryo-level, and matching analysis, we found no clinically significant interactions between male age and sperm quality with embryo ploidy.

What Is Known Already: While the effect of maternal age on embryo chromosomal aneuploidy is well-established, the impact of male age and sperm quality on ploidy is less well-defined.

Study Design, Size, Duration: This retrospective cohort study analyzed autologous preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) and frozen embryo transfer cycles from December 2014 to June 2021.

Perinatal outcomes are similar in programmed and modified natural frozen embryo transfer cycles.

Research Question: How do perinatal outcomes differ between programmed and modified natural frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycles?

Design: A retrospective cohort study of 839 patients was undertaken at a university-affiliated fertility practice undergoing single blastocyst FET cycles between 2014 and 2020. The primary outcome measures were the incidence of ischaemic placental disease, small for gestational age (SGA), intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), preterm delivery, birth weight, and mode of delivery.

Results: When comparing programmed FET cycles with modified natural FET cycles, there was no increased risk of ischaemic placental disease [adjusted risk ratio (aRR) 0.

Utilization of Cryopreserved Oocytes in Patients With Poor Ovarian Response After Planned Oocyte Cryopreservation.

Importance: Poor ovarian response (POR) to stimulation may impact patients' desire or need to utilize cryopreserved oocytes for family building in the future. These findings, captured by Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) national data, underscore the need for tailored counseling and further research into the decision-making processes influencing oocyte utilization.

Objective: To examine the association of ovarian response to stimulation and the number of vitrified oocytes with the likelihood and timing of patients returning for oocyte utilization following planned oocyte cryopreservation (OC).

ART outcomes in lean compared to obese phenotypes of polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Research Question: To investigate differences in reproductive outcomes among IVF patients with lean compared to obese polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) phenotypes.

Design: A retrospective cohort study of patients with PCOS who underwent IVF in a single, academically affiliated infertility center in the USA between December 2014 and July 2020. The diagnosis of PCOS was assigned based on Rotterdam criteria.

Day after rescue ICSI: eliminating total fertilization failure after conventional IVF with high live birth rates following cryopreserved blastocyst transfer.

Study Question: What is the impact of day after rescue ICSI (r-ICSI) on success of fresh and frozen embryo transfers?

Summary Answer: The use of r-ICSI can virtually allay fears of total fertilization failure (TFF) after conventional IVF (C-IVF) and achieve high live birth rates after frozen blastocyst transfer.

What Is Known Already: More infertility clinics have resorted to the use of ICSI in place of C-IVF in IVF treatment owing to fear of TFF or a low fertilization rate. r-ICSI has been attempted either on the day of IVF or the day after.

Acceptance of genetic editing and of whole genome sequencing of human embryos by patients with infertility before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research Question: Has acceptance of heritable genome editing (HGE) and whole genome sequencing for preimplantation genetic testing (PGT-WGS) of human embryos changed after the onset of COVID-19 among infertility patients?

Design: A written survey conducted between April and June 2018 and July and December 2021 among patients at a university-affiliated infertility practice. The questionnaire ascertained the acceptance of HGE for specific therapeutic or genetic 'enhancement' indications and of PGT-WGS to prevent adult disease.

Results: In 2021 and 2018, 172 patients and 469 patients (response rates: 90% and 91%, respectively) completed the questionnaire.

Compared with conventional insemination, intracytoplasmic sperm injection provides no benefit in cases of nonmale factor infertility as evidenced by comparable euploidy rate.

Objective: To evaluate whether differences in euploidy rates exist between intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and conventional insemination (CI) in nonmale factor infertility cases.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: A single, academically affiliated infertility center in the United States.

Modified natural and optimized programmed frozen embryo transfers have equivalent live birth rates: an analysis of 6,682 cycles.

Objective: To compare the live birth rates (LBRs) in modified natural and programmed single blastocyst frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycles.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: University-affiliated fertility practice.

A diagnosis of diminished ovarian reserve does not impact embryo aneuploidy or live birth rates compared to patients with normal ovarian reserve.

Objective: To estimate the aneuploidy rates in young women with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) before treatment and poor ovarian response (POR) postretrieval.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: A single academically-affiliated fertility clinic.

Impact of empathic physician contact on patient anxiety and distress during the waiting period after embryo transfer: a randomized controlled trial.

Research Question: Can an empathic physician phone call in the interval between embryo transfer and first serum human chorionic gonadotrophin measurement decrease anxiety and distress amongst patients undergoing IVF?

Design: This was a randomized controlled trial at a single academically-affiliated fertility centre including patients aged 18-43 undergoing their first embryo transfer with autologous fresh or euploid cryopreserved embryos following preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies (frozen embryo transfer, FET/PGT-A). After embryo transfer, participants were randomized to a 5-minute scripted phone call (intervention) from a single physician 3-4 days after embryo transfer or to routine care. The primary and secondary outcomes included were change in State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) scores from the start of IVF stimulation to 8-9 days after embryo transfer, respectively.

The effect of interpregnancy interval on preterm birth and low birth weight in singleton pregnancies conceived without assistance or by infertility treatments.

Objective: To determine the association of interpregnancy interval on perinatal outcomes and whether this was influenced by mode of conception.

Design: Retrospective cohort.

Setting: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's natality national database.

Endometrial compaction does not predict live birth in single euploid frozen embryo transfers: a prospective study.

Study Question: Is there a relationship between endometrial compaction and live birth in euploid frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycles?

Summary Answer: Live birth rates (LBRs) were similar in both patients that demonstrated endometrial compaction or no compaction in single euploid FETs.

What Is Known Already: There has been increasing interest in the correlation between endometrial compaction and clinical outcomes but there has been conflicting evidence from prior investigations.

Study Design, Size, Duration: This was a prospective observational study from 1 September 2020 to 9 April 2021.

The psychological impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on women who become pregnant after receiving treatment for infertility: a longitudinal study.

Objective: To compare the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the psychological health of patients with infertility who have become pregnant with that of women who have not.

Design: Prospective cohort study conducted from April 2020 to June 2020. The participants completed three questionnaires over this period.