Embryo retrieval in summer raises odds of IVF success

The time of year when eggs are collected during fertility treatments make a difference to live birth rates, according to groundbreaking research by Dr Sebastian Leathersich at King Edward Memorial Hospital and City Fertility.

The research found that transferring frozen, then thawed embryos from eggs collected in the summer resulted in a 30 per cent higher odds of a live birth than if the eggs had been retrieved in autumn. The amount of sunlight around the time of egg collection appeared to account for much of this difference.

With more than 60 per cent of embryo transfers in Australia being from frozen embryos, Dr Leathersich and his colleagues saw this as an opportunity to investigate the impact of environment on egg development and on early pregnancy by analysing the environmental conditions independently from the time of embryo transfer.

Congratulations to Dr Leathersich and his team for this research, which was recently published in the prestigious oxford Academic.

Read the journal article (external site).