Gynecology & Obstetrics
Open Access

Abstract

The Blastulation Rate as a Metric For an In Vitro Fertilization Laboratory, Patient And Physician Factors May Impact that Rate

Bruce I Rose* and Kevin Nguyen

Objective: To determine the blastulation rate for an In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) laboratory and determine how it was effected by patient and physician variables.

Design: Retrospective Cohort.

Setting: Community-based IVF center staffed by one embryologist and five physicians from 2017-2019

Interventions:Controlled ovarian hyperstimulation, oocyte retrieval, and embryo culture for up to six days (1005 cycles and 11,022 oocytes

Main Outcome Measure: The proportion of pre-zygotes that developed into blastocysts.

Results: The overall blastulation rate was 70%. The blastulation rate was not significantly affected by maternal age. The blastulation rate was decreased when surgically obtained sperm were used (59.2%; p<0.0001), but not significantly decreased with various degrees of oligozoospermia. The specific physician performing the retrieval significantly impacted the blastulation rate (up to a blastulation rate difference of 7.6%; p<0.0002). Individual physicians retrieved averages of different numbers of oocytes, which resulted in different average numbers of blastocysts for different physicians.

Conclusions: The blastulation rate is an easy-to-calculate statistic for an IVF laboratory. It is not significantly affected by the inclusion of patients with advanced maternal age undergoing extended culture or couples with poor sperm counts. Physician factors may affect both the blastulation rate and the average number of blastocysts produced.

Published Date: 2022-02-27; Received Date: 2022-02-02