Evaluation of the clinical efficacy of embryo cryopreservation

To fully evaluate the advantages of a cryopreservation program a method nee ds to be established to express the additional patients pregnant from cryop reservation. The patient specific method considers cryopreservation as augm entation only among patients without a pregnancy from the fresh transfer, o r from previously transferred frozen material from the same harvest. In an analysis of the pregnancy rate at the Jones Institute between January 1996 and December 1998 we found a fresh pregnancy rate of 40.8% in the good resp onders and 28.8% in poor responders. The patient specific pregnancy rate in the same cycles was 53.4% in good responders and 32.3% in poor responders. Good responders less than 35 years of age with ten or more mature eggs at retrieval had a fresh pregnancy rate of 40.2% and a patient specific pregna ncy rate of 57.9%. It is exceedingly important for the physician and patien t to understand and comprehend the potential in cryopreserved material. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.