The impact of blastocyst freezing and biopsy on the association of blastocyst morphological parameters with live birth and singleton birthweight

Objective: To explore whether the associations of 3 blastocyst morphological parameters, namely, degree of blastocyst expansion (expansion), appearance of trophectoderm (TE) and inner cell mass, with live birth and singleton birth weight are influenced by blas-tocyst freezing and biopsy.Design: A retrospective study.Setting: An assisted reproductive technology center.Patient(s): 28,515 single blastocyst transfer cycles between January 2014 and August 2019.Intervention(s): Not applicable.Main Outcome Measure(s): Live birth and singleton birth weight. Result(s): Blastocyst transfer cycles were divided into 4 groups: biopsied blastocyst cycles (biopsied-blast), thawed blastocyst cycles (thawed-blast), blastocyst from thawed cleavage embryo cycles (blast-thawed-D3), and fresh blastocyst cycles (fresh-blast). Subgroup analyses by blastocyst stage (day 5 and day 6) were performed in thawed-blast and blast-thawed-D3. Because almost all blastocysts were biopsied on day 6 and fresh blastocysts were transferred on day 5, the biopsied-blast and fresh-blast were not divided into subgroups. First, the associations between blastocyst morphological parameters and live birth were analyzed. To explore the effect of freezing, we compared day-5 frozen cycles (thawed-blast) vs. day-5 fresh cycles (including fresh-blast and blast-thawed-D3) and day 6 frozen cycles (thawed-blast) vs. day-6 fresh cycles (blast-thawed-D3). Inner cell mass and TE were associated with live birth for day 5 embryos, and only TE affected live birth for day-6 embryos. The associations were the same in frozen cycles and fresh cycles. To explore the effect of biopsy, we compared day-6 biopsied cycles (biopsied-blast) vs. day-6 nonbiopsied cycles (including thawed-blast and blast-thawed-D3). All the 3 parameters were associated with live birth in biopsied-blast, whereas only TE was associated with live birth in nonbiopsied cycles. In addition, the associations between blastocyst morphological parameters and singleton birthweight were analyzed. In the 6 subgroups, expansion stage of day-6 embryos in biopsied-blast and TE grade of day-6 embryos in thawed-blast were associated with birth weight, and there are no associations in other subgroups.Conclusion(s): The association of blastocyst morphological parameters with live birth may be affected by blastocyst biopsy and/or genetic testing, and its association with birth weight may be affected by blastocyst freezing and biopsy and/or genetic testing. (Fertil Steril (R) 2023;119:56-66. (c) 2022 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.)

Automated summary

The objective of this study was to investigate whether the associations between blastocyst morphological parameters (degree of blastocyst expansion, appearance of trophectoderm, and inner cell mass) and live birth and singleton birth weight are influenced by blastocyst freezing and biopsy. The results showed that blastocyst freezing, biopsy, and/or genetic testing may affect the associations between blastocyst morphological parameters and live birth and birth weight.