Pregnancy Outcomes Of Patients With Fever During Oocyte Retrieval After The first Frozen-Thawed Embryo Transfer (FET) Cycle

Abstract

Background: Infertility is a medical distressing chronic condition that is appraised to affect 9% to 30% of reproductive-aged couples worldwide. It is well known that assisted reproduction technology (ART) is currently an effective method for treating infertility. Many of them seek to achieve pregnancy via assisted reproductive technologies (ART). May affect endometrial receptivity or embryo quality with poor pregnancy outcomes. The aim of this study was to analyze the outcomes of patients with fever during oocyte retrieval after the first frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) cycle. Methods: This study was a retrospective 1:3 matched-pair study, and the data collection at International Fertility Center, Delhi, India. Information on infertility patients who underwent whole embryo freezing cycles (“freeze-all” strategy) were collected from January 2019 to June 2020 in IFC, India. In this study, 58 infertility patients (Group 1) had a fever during the control ovulation, and the time of the oocyte retrieval was within 72 hours, they underwent ovum pick up and whole embryo freezing (“freeze-all” strategy). The control subjects (Group 2) are 174 patients matched for age who underwent whole embryo freezing for other reasons. The baseline characteristics, clinical data of ovarian stimulation, and outcomes, such as the clinical pregnancy rate, ongoing clinical pregnancy rate were compared between the two groups in the subsequent FET cycle. Results: All patients had no pelvic inflammatory disease after oocyte retrieval. Anti- Mullerian hormone (AMH) levels (4.2 vs. 2.2, p<0.001) were higher in group 2, and the number of oocytes retrieved, and fertilization rate were lower in group 1 (p< 0.001), but the endometrial thickness, the number of embryo transfers, and the type of luteal support supplementation were similar between the two groups. Regarding pregnancy outcomes in the subsequent FET cycle, the implantation rate, clinical pregnancy rate, early spontaneous rate, ectopic pregnancy rate, and ongoing pregnancy rate were all not significantly different. Further regression analyses showed that the clinical pregnancy rate and ongoing pregnancy rate were also not significantly different. Conclusion: Transvaginal ultrasound guided follicular puncture for oocyte retrieval is a safe and minimally invasive method for patients with fever. Moreover, the fever had almost no effect on embryo quality.