Blastocyst cryopreservation and cryopreservation-warming transfer is an effective embryo transfer strategy for day 1 rescue intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles

This was a retrospective analysis of a total of 625 r-ICSI cycles using freeze-all-embryos and embryo transfers (ET) in subsequent cryopreservation-warming cycles to determine the effect of the ET method for day 1 rescue intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles (r-ICSI). Two methods were used: in method 1, cleavage-stage embryos were frozen and were directly transferred in a subsequent cryopreservation-warming cycle (r-ICSI frozen cleavage), and 144 cleavage-stage ETs occurred. Similarly, in method 2, there were 188 blastocyst-stage ETs (r-ICSI frozen blast) performed. The live birth rate (LBR) for r-ICSI frozen blast was better than that for r-ICSI frozen cleavage in calculation of ET cycles (19.44% vs. 37.77%) and also remained better after the use of logistic regression analysis (OR=2.721, 95% CI 1.604-4.616). Conservative cumulative LBR were compared between r-ICSI frozen cleavage and r-ICSI frozen blast with regard to oocyte retrieval cycles (17.39% vs. 15.30%). The same results were obtained for conservative cumulative LBR after logistic regression analysis (OR=0.925, 95% CI 0.557-1.535). The results of this study confirmed that it was valuable to perform r-ICSI if using freeze-all-embryos. Further, r-ICSI embryos were cultured to blastocyst stage, cryopreserved, and used in subsequent cryopreservation-warming cycles, which was an effective embryo transfer strategy and obtained satisfactory results.

Automated summary

The study analyzed 625 r-ICSI cycles using freeze-all-embryos and embryo transfers, showing that blastocyst-stage ETs had a higher live birth rate compared to cleavage-stage embryo transfers in r-ICSI cycles.