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Background: Many variables, including woman's age, embryo quality and endometrial receptivity, influence the success rate of either fresh embryo transfer (ET) or frozen-thawed ET (FT-ET) cycles. This study aims to examine whether the results of a fresh in-vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle correlate with its frozen-thawed embryos transfer outcomes., Methods: A retrospective cohort study conducted in a tertiary medical center single IVF unit between 2014-2017. The study population was comprised of women who underwent fresh ET with the remaining embryos frozen using vitrification and at least one consecutive FT-ET cycle. Comparison of FT-ET cycle's details and outcomes were assessed in relation to the outcome of preceding fresh ET cycle., Results: A total of 599 women underwent fresh ET and at least one consecutive FT-ET cycle. Significantly higher rates of successful FT-ET cycle outcomes were observed in the group of patients with a successful fresh cycle compared to the group with an unsuccessful fresh cycle (48.9% vs. 20.8%, P<0.001). Logistic regression demonstrated an adjusted OR of 5.02 for successful FT-ET after a successful fresh cycle., Conclusions: Frozen-thawed embryos generated from successful fresh IVF cycles have higher potential to implant when compared to frozen-thawed embryos obtained in an unsuccessful fresh cycle.

Purpose : We aimed to investigate the possible effect of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on sperm quality by evaluating semen analyses of men prior to vaccination and 6–14 months after vaccination. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study, conducted in a university-affiliated in vitro fertilization center between October 2021 and March 2022, including men not previously infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus who received at least 2 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2) SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Semen analyses of samples given pre-vaccination and 6–14 months post-vaccination were analyzed for the parameters of volume, concentration, motility, morphology, and total motile count (TMC) and compared. These parameters were also compared separately for men who received a third (booster) dose and for men with pre-vaccination normal and abnormal sperm. Correlations between time from vaccination and post-vaccination sperm parameters were also assessed. Results: Fifty-eight men were included in the final analysis. Semen volume (2.9 ± 1.4 vs. 2.9 ± 1.6 ml), sperm concentration (42.9 ± 37.9 vs. 51.5 ± 46.2 million/ml), motility (42.5 ± 23.1 vs. 44.3 ± 23.4 percent), morphology (8.8 ±.16.6 vs. 6.6 ± 8.8 percent), and TMC (55.7 ± 57.9 vs. 71.1 ± 77.1 million) were comparable between the pre- and post-vaccination samples. This was true for the entire study cohort, for the subgroup of men who received a third dose and for the subgroups of men with a pre-vaccination normal and abnormal semen samples. No correlation was found between time from vaccination and post-vaccination sperm parameters. Conclusions: The Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2) SARS-CoV-2 vaccine does not impair any of the sperm parameters over a relatively long-time interval of 6 to 14 months from vaccination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Follicular fluid (FF) constitutes the microenvironment of the developing oocyte. We recently characterized its lipid composition and found lipid signatures of positive pregnancy outcome after in vitro fertilization (IVF). In the current study, we aimed to test the hypothesis that unexplained female infertility is related to lipid metabolism, given the lipid signature of positive-outcome IVF patients we previously found. Assuming that FF samples from IVF patients with male factor infertility can represent a non-hindered metabolic microenvironment, we compared them to FF taken from women with unexplained infertility. FF from patients undergoing IVF was examined for its lipid composition. We found highly increased triacylglycerol levels, with a lower abundance of monoacylglycerols, phospholipids and sphingolipids in the FF of patients with unexplained infertility. The alterations in the lipid class accumulation were independent of the body mass index (BMI) and were altogether kept across the age groups. Potential lipid biomarkers for pregnancy outcomes showed a highly discriminative abundance in the FF of unexplained infertility patients. Lipid abundance distinguished IVF patients with unrecognized infertility and provided a potential means for the evaluation of female fertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]