[Pregnancy outcomes of day-2 versus day-3 embryo transfer in poor responders].

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the day of embryo transfer (day 2 or day 3) affects clinical pregnancy outcomes in poor responder patients. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the pregnancy rates of 265 initial fresh cycles of in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET), all transferred on day 2 (n = 169) or day 3 (n = 96) irrespective of quality because of an extremely low number of available embryos. RESULTS: Among the poor responders aged < 35 years, a higher rate of clinical pregnancy was achieved in the day-3 than in the day-2 group (50% vs 32.43% ; RR = 0.65, 95% CI 0.43 - 0.99), and among those aged years, the two groups showed similar pregnancy outcomes. CONCLUSION: Shortening the time of embryo culture has no obvious benefit for the pregnancy outcome. For the poor responders under 35 years of age, day-3 embryo transfer may afford an even higher rate of clinical pregnancy.