- Tao Song: Reproductive Medicine Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Medical School Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310016, China.
OBJECTIVES: To study the relationship of the number and quality of embryos transferred with clinical pregnancy rate and multiple pregnancy rate in frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) cycle.
METHODS: Retrospective analysis of the clinical data of 995 FET cycles. Patients were stratified as age < 35 or > or = 35, Both groups' clinical pregnancy rate and multiple pregnancy rate were compared according to the number of embryos and high-quality embryos transferred.
RESULTS: (1) The clinical pregnancy rates were 50.0%, 56.6% and 56.5%, and twin pregnancy rates were 6.3%, 43.8% and 30.6% respectively in < 35 group when one, two or three embryos were transferred. There is not any significantly statistic difference among these subgroups (P > 0.05). However, the twin pregnancy rate in one-embryo transferred subgroup was significantly lower than that of two-embryo transferred subgroup (P < 0.05). Moreover, the clinical pregnancy rate was not different among single high-quality embryo transferred subgroup and other high-quality embryo transferred subgroups, the multiple pregnancy rate was lower than the others. (2) The clinical pregnancy rates were 0, 47.3% and 53.8%, and twin pregnancy rates were 0, 25.7% and 25.7% respectively in > or = 35 group when one, two or three embryos were transferred. The clinical pregnancy rate and twin pregnancy rate between two-embryo and three-embryo transferred subgroups were not significantly different (P > 0.05). Moreover, the clinical pregnancy rate was not different among two-embryo transferred containing one high-quality embryo subgroup and other high-quality embryo transferred subgroups, the multiple pregnancy rate was lower than the others.
CONCLUSIONS: There is a close relationship between the number and quality of embryos transferred and clinical pregnancy rate, multiple pregnancy rate in FET cycles. For the patient aged < 35, we recommend performing single high-quality embryo transfer in order to reduce the multiple pregnancy. For the patient aged > or = 35, two-embryo transfer containing one high-quality embryo is enough to obtain a satisfied clinical pregnancy rate and an acceptable multiple pregnancy rate.