MIMICKING THE HIGH-LEVELS OF ACTIVITY OF A LARGE IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION UNIT LEADS TO EARLY SUCCESS AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF AN IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION AND EMBRYO-TRANSFER PROGRAM

Infertile couples seeking treatment will endeavour to obtain the highe st standards of care at a conveniently located centre, The success rat es of a centre would also be an important concern, The busier in-vitro fertilization (IVF) units (>400 cycles per year) have substantially h igher pregnancy rates than those carrying out <300 cycles per year, We report our experiences at the IVF Centre, Maternity Hospital, Kuwait of mimicking the high level of activity of a large IVF unit, Infertile couples were treated in groups of 30-35 every 4-6 weeks. Patients in each group had menstrual cycles synchronized to their luteal phase usi ng progestogens. Thereafter they were down-regulated with gonadotrophi n-releasing hormone agonist (long protocol). Oocyte retrieval and embr yology activities were concentrated and completed in 7-10 days in each group. This episodic high level of activity was aimed at mimicking th at of a busy large IVF centre, although continuous in the latter, The overall results in terms of fertilization, cleavage, implantation and clinical pregnancy rates were similar to those obtained in large IVF u nits, The clinical pregnancy rate per cycle was 25.8-39.1% in IVF and 46.1% in intracytoplasmic sperm injection.