Obtaining quality oocytes is a prerequisite for ART-based studies. Here we describe a method for transabdominal ultrasound-guided (US) oocyte retrieval in rhesus macaques (Macaca mullata) and compare it to the standard surgical approach using laparos...
2 July 2026
Posthumous gamete retrieval has emerged as a complex issue at the intersection of reproductive technology, bioethics, consent, and law. While posthumous sperm retrieval has received small amounts of legal, ethical, and clinical attention, posthumous...
Life-threatening bleeding after oocyte retrieval is unusual. We report a case of massive vaginal bleeding requiring transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) after transvaginal US-directed follicle aspiration for oocyte retrieval and provide a brief...
Infertility is one of the major medical problems nowadays. Couples who opt for In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) face a great deal of stress which certainly affects the outcome of the procedure. Therefore, we aimed to reduce the stress during the oocyte r...
Background/Objectives: Oocytes retrieved from the pouch of Douglas during transvaginal oocyte pick-up (OPU) have historically been described mainly in isolated case reports and small series. Their developmental competence and clinical relevance remai...
Background and Objectives: Severe hemoperitoneum of ovarian bleeding origin is a rare but potentially life-threatening complication of transvaginal oocyte retrieval (TVOR) procedure. The study aimed to present a case series of surgically managed pati...
We studied the impact of age and the serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH)/follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels on the number of cumulus–oocyte complexes (COCs) retrieved from female reciprocal and Robertsonian translocation carriers aft...
Background: Emergence of Luteal Phase Oocyte Retrieval (LuPOR) may revolutionize the practice regarding the time-sensitive nature of poor responders ascertaining a higher number of oocytes, in a shorter amount of time. This may be especially importan...
Transvaginal ultrasound-guided follicle aspiration remains the gold standard for oocyte retrieval in assisted reproductive technology (ART). This procedure employs either a single-lumen aspiration needle (SLN) or double-lumen aspiration needle (DLN),...
The hallmark feature of empty follicle syndrome (EFS) is failure to retrieve oocytes from apparently mature follicles despite adequate ovarian stimulation and appropriate ovulation triggering. Although considered uncommon, with a reported prevalence...
Background/Objectives: Fertility preservation is a key component of oncological care. This study evaluated the effectiveness of different controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) protocols, including dual stimulation (DuoStim), for oocyte preservation, w...
6 September 2021
The presence of empty zona pellucida (EZP) in oocytes following oocyte retrieval (OR) during an in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle presents a major clinical and laboratory challenge in assisted reproduction. It has been attributed to several factors...
After the controlled ovarian stimulation (COS), the number of cumulus oocyte complexes collected is lower than predicted. The aim of this study is to understand if there is a possible reason for that deficient ovarian response. It was hypothesized th...
Acupuncture is believed to improve ovarian reserve and reproductive outcomes in women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of network-optimized acupuncture followed by IVF on the oocyte yield in wom...
It is a challenge to obtain sufficient eggs during in vitro fertilization (IVF) in women with impending ovarian failure (IOF)/diminished ovarian reserve (DOR). Although studies have suggested that more than one wave of follicle growth exists, the eff...
(1) Background: There has been various reports on the potential impact of anesthetic agents used during oocyte retrieval (OR) on the impairment of the capacity of the oocyte for fertilization and subsequent embryo quality; results have been conflicti...
Appropriate ovarian responses to the controlled ovarian stimulation strategy is the premise for a good outcome of the in vitro fertilization cycle. With the booming of artificial intelligence, machine learning is becoming a popular and promising appr...
Background/Objectives: Fertility preservation (FP) has become an integral component of multidisciplinary care for patients at risk of treatment- or disease-related infertility. Although several established and emerging fertility preservation strategi...
Mammalian oocyte activation is initiated by intracellular calcium (Ca2+) oscillations, driven by the testis-specific phospholipase C zeta (PLCζ). Sperm PLCζ analysis represents a diagnostic measure of sperm fertilisation capacity. The appli...
The in vitro maturation of oocytes is frequently used as an assisted reproductive technique (ART), and has been successfully established in humans and rodents. To overcome the limitations of ART, novel procedures for the in vitro maturation of early...
This retrospective cross-sectional study investigates determinants on follicular development, oocyte retrieval and pregnancy outcome. It assessed the clinical practicability of monitoring parameters in relation to predict a successful treatment. Anal...
Background/Objectives: This exploratory interim analysis examined associations between serial plasma oxidation–reduction potential (ORP) and single-follicle follicular-fluid (FF) ORP during fertility treatment. Between-visit measurements and cy...
Here we investigate whether the presence of germinal vesicle-stage oocytes (GV− oocytes) reflects poor oocyte developmental competence (or quality). This was a prospective, non-randomised, cohort pilot-study involving 60 patients undergoing in...
Background/Objectives: This paper undertakes an investigation into the implications of premature progesterone rise (PPR) on pregnancy outcomes in freeze-all strategy cycles. Methods: A retrospective cohort study encompassing 675 IVF/ICSI cycles using...
Poor ovarian response (POR) patients often face the risk of not having enough competent oocytes. Then, aspirating small follicles could serve as a strategy to increase their number. Many efforts have been addressed to associate follicular size with o...
Background/Objectives: The success of artificial reproductive technologies (ARTs) depends on different factors, such as patient-specific reproductive features, ovarian response to stimulation, oocyte and embryo quality, and endometrial receptivity. T...
Oocyte development and fertilization are largely influenced by the microenvironment of the follicular fluid (FF), and the exploration of its molecular/metabolic composition may help in improving in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcomes. Here, the concen...
Background and Objectives: Delayed childbearing in advanced age might be associated with a low prognosis for achieving pregnancy. Therefore, it is important to establish a predictive tool that will optimize the likelihood of a live birth at advanced...
Objective: To systematically analyze and synthesize the evidence from the literature, we compared outcomes of the PPOS + LE protocol versus standard PPOS in patients undergoing IVF. Materials and Methods: We systematically searched the MEDLINE, Scopu...
Background/Objectives: Dual stimulation starting in the follicular phase allows retrieval of more oocytes than single follicular-phase controlled ovarian stimulation (COS). However, dual stimulation excludes fresh embryo transfer (ET), forcing us to...
Oocyte development begins during embryonic life and remains arrested in prophase I until meiotic resumption during ovulation. A substantial proportion of oocytes retrieved during assisted reproductive procedures remain immature at the metaphase I (MI...
The preservation of fertility in cancer patients is a crucial aspect of modern reproductive medicine. Amenorrhea and infertility often occur after cancer therapy, worsening the quality of life. Cryopreservation of oocytes in young cancer patients is...
Objectives: This research aimed to study the effect of 15mcg/day of follitropin delta on normo-responding women. Methods: A single-center, open-label, matched case–control pilot trial was carried out from September 2021 to June 2022. In this tr...
Sarcomas are relatively common in the young and their treatment can impair fertility. Fertility preservation can be achieved via the cryopreservation of gametes after controlled ovarian stimulation before cancer treatment. A reduced response to hormo...
Background and Objectives: Endometriosis is a multifactorial gynecological condition associated with impaired fertility; however, its impact on embryo competence remains incompletely understood. This study aimed to evaluate embryo competence through...
Multilayered secondary follicles were encapsulated in a 0.5% alginate matrix and cultured in a 3D culture system supplemented with bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP-15; 15 ng/mL) for 12 days. The in vitro development of ovarian follicles was evaluat...
Background and Objectives: Some biomarkers of ovarian responsiveness to gonadotropins and the total number of retrieved oocytes are known to affect the success rate after controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) and in vitro fertilization (IVF). The aim...
Each year, hundreds of female koalas are presented to koala hospitals suffering from a range of morbidities, many of which require euthanasia for animal welfare reasons. These koalas represent a possible resource for genetic recovery by means of oocy...
(1) Background: Single blastocyst transfers (SBT) and double blastocyst transfers (DBT) are widely used in clinical practice. The objective of this study was to investigate the application of these two strategies in women of different ages. (2) Metho...
In vitro maturation (IVM) of oocytes retrieved from ovum pick-up (OPU) or ovarian tissue (OT) is a standard approach for patients with specific conditions where prior hormonal stimulation is contraindicated. However, the developmental competence of o...
Endometriosis-related infertility is associated with oxidative stress (OS). The present study aims to compare serum OS markers of infertile women with endometriosis and controls during the follicular phase of the natural cycle (D1), after pituitary d...
To ensure patient care in an oncological fertility preservation (FP) programme, specialists must provide technology that best suits the patients’ clinical conditions. In vitro oocyte maturation (IVM) and ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC) ar...
Background. Triggering final oocyte maturation is a key step of ovarian stimulation. Although previous studies demonstrated a negative association between female BMI and serum hCG levels, little evidence is available regarding the association between...
Decreased oocyte quality is a major determinant of age-associated fertility decline. Similarly, individuals affected by early ovarian aging carry low-quality oocytes. Using an established bovine model of early ovarian aging, we investigated key featu...
Background: Suboptimal ovarian responders are a clinically important subgroup of patients treated with in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Although their ovarian reserve is usually normal, fewer oocytes than expec...
Endometriomas (chocolate cysts) are cystic lesions that can develop on ovaries, and are characterized by the presence of ectopic endometrial tissue or similar tissue. Such lesions can cause a decline in the number and quality of oocytes, and lead to...
The search for simple morphological predictors of oocyte quality is an important task for assisted reproduction technologies (ARTs). One such predictor may be the morphology of the oocyte nucleus, called the germinal vesicle (GV), including the level...
Background/Objectives: Fertility preservation is a key component of cancer care in women of reproductive age, and controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) followed by oocyte/embryo cryopreservation is considered the standard strategy. Although COS protoc...
Fertility preservation is an important concern for young cancer patients. Oocyte or embryo cryopreservation prior to chemotherapy administration is desirable but often difficult for patients with hematopoietic and lymphoid tissue tumors. In this stud...
In the last decade, the evolution of oncofertility has sparked a resurgence of interest in in vitro maturation (IVM) due to its suitability in certain oncological scenarios where controlled ovarian hyperstimulation may not be feasible. The retrieval...
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