BACKGROUND
It is well known that assisted reproduction technology (ART) is currently an effective method for treating infertility. But it is currently unknown whether the patients with fever after control ovulation during egg retrieval could increase risk of pelvic infection or not, and fever itself may be affect oocyte or embryo quantity and quality, thus with poor pregnancy outcomes? But if the oocyte retrieval was cancelled cause of fever, the risk of severe ovulation complications might increase, such as ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome, thrombus and ovarian pedicle torsion.
OBJECTIVE
The goal of this study was to analysis the outcomes of the patients with fever during oocyte retrieval after the first frozen-thawed embryo transfer cycle.
METHODS
This is a 1:3 retrospective paired study matched for age. In this study, 58 infertility patients (Group 1) had fever during the control ovulation and the time of the oocyte retrieval within 72 hours, they undertook ovum pick up and whole embryo freezing (“freeze-all” strategy). The control controls (Group 2) are174 patients matched for age with whole embryo freezing for other reasons. The baseline characteristic, clinical data of ovarian stimulation and the outcomes, such as the clinical pregnancy rate, early miscarriage rate, ectopic pregnancy rate and ongoing clinical pregnancy rate were compared between the two groups.
RESULTS
There were 58 patients were enrolled in the Group 1, and matched with 174 patients for the Group 2. All the patients had no pelvic inflammatory disease after oocyte retrieval. The basic characteristics of patients refers to age, BMI, nulliparity, basal FSH, basal LH, basal E2 and infertility type (primary or secondary) were with no significantly difference. But the AMH lever (4.2 versus 2.2, P<0.001) were higher and the infertility time (3 versus 2, P=0.035) was longer in the control group. The number of oocytes retrieved and fertilization rate were lower in the group (P< 0.001), but the ovarian stimulation protocol, the usage of Gn both time and dose, the ICSI rate, the 2PN rate, the number of available embryos (D3 and D5), the endometrial thickness, the number of embryo transfer and the type of luteal support supplementation were similar between the two groups. Regarding pregnancy outcomes,the implantation rate, clinical pregnancy rate, early spontaneous rate, ectopic pregnancy rate and ongoing pregnancy rate all were with no significantly difference.
CONCLUSIONS
The patients with fever during control ovulation and the oocyte retrieval got similar outcomes compared with those with no fever patients when taken the whole embryos freezing. Fever had almost no effect on the quality of embryo and endometrium. Moreover, the oocyte retrieved is relatively safe and reliable under strict disinfection and taken oral antibiotics for prevention infection.