Oocyte quality and treatment outcome in intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles of polycystic ovarian syndrome patients

Patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) have higher miscarriage ra tes. It is postulated that this is caused by a lower rate of mature oocytes , and a lower quality of embryos. Retrospectively we analysed 51 intracytop lasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles of 31 PCOS patients. These data were c ompared to age-matched controls (105 cycles) during the same period. All pa tients of both groups received gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agoni sts prior to gonadotrophin treatment. The rate of metaphase II oocytes (MII ) was not different. However, the mean absolute number of normally fertiliz ed oocytes was significantly higher in PCOS patients (5.00 versus 3.56, P < 0.01), due to a higher number of oocytes retrieved. More embryos were tran sferred by cycle in the PCOS group (2.69 versus 2.17, P < 0.05), with a hig her cumulative embryo score. The overall and multiple pregnancy rate showed no differences and the clinical abortion rate nas lower (21 versus 41.67%, P < 0.05) in the controls. Our findings demonstrate that negative factors unconnected to oocyte morphology must be present in PCOS patients. It is po ssible that only cytoplasmic, not nuclear maturity is influenced in these p atients.