Day-2 and day-3 sequential transfer improves pregnancy rate in patients with repeated IVF-embryo transfer failure: a retrospective case-control study

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of sequential embryo transfer in patients with repeated IVF failure. A retrospective matched case-control study was conducted and the outcomes of 213 patients with a history of repeated IVF-embryo transfer failure were analysed, of which 33 women underwent sequential embryo transfer on day 2 and day 3 (D2/D3 group), 66 women on day 3 and day 5 (D3/D5 group), 85 women underwent day-3 embryo transfer only (D3 control group) and 29 women underwent day-5 embryo transfer only (D5 control group) in the assisted reproduction centre of the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from August 2010 to December 2011. The results showed that the clinical pregnancy rate of the D2/D3 group was higher than that of the D3 group (48.5% versus 22.4%, P = 0.006) while the clinical pregnancy rates of the D3/D5 and D5 groups were not significantly different (50.9% versus 45.8%). Day-2 and day-3 sequential embryo transfer may improve the clinical outcomes for patients with repeated IVF-embryo transfer failures. RBMOnline (C) 2012, Reproductive Healthcare Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.