Endometriosis does not impact live-birth rates in frozen embryo transfers of euploid blastocysts

Objective: To determine whether subfertility in patients with endometriosis is due to impaired endometrial receptivity by comparing pregnancy and live-birth outcomes in women with endometriosis versus two control groups without suspected endometrial factors: noninfertile patients who underwent assisted reproduction to test embryos for a single-gene disorder and couples with isolated male factor infertility. Design: Retrospective cohort. Setting: Multicenter private practice. Patient(s): All patients aged 24 to 44 years undergoing euploid frozen blastocysts transfer from January 2016 through March 2018. Intervention(s): None. Main Outcome Measure(s): Live birth, clinical pregnancies, pregnancy losses, and aneuploid rates in preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy cycles. Result(s): The analysis included 459 euploid frozen embryo transfer cycles among 328 unique patients. There were no differences in clinical pregnancy, pregnancy loss, or live-birth rates in patients with endometriosis compared with both control groups. The aneuploidy rates were lowest in the preimplantation genetic testing for monogenic disorders cohort, and the endometriosis patients had aneuploidy rates similar to those of the male factor infertility patients. Conclusion(s): It is unclear whether endometriosis primarily affects in vitro fertilization outcomes via oocyte quality or the endometrium. By controlling for embryo quality using euploid frozen embryo transfer cycles, we found no difference in pregnancy outcomes in patients with endometriosis compared with patients undergoing treatment for male factor infertility and noninfertile patients. ((C) 2020 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.)

Automated summary

In this retrospective cohort study, no differences in pregnancy outcomes were observed between patients with endometriosis and the control groups. Aneuploidy rates were similar between endometriosis patients and male factor infertility patients, indicating that endometriosis may not primarily affect in vitro fertilization outcomes through oocyte quality or the endometrium.