Thaw success with non-vitrification methods

[CrystalTipps]

Hi Carole, I wonder if you could answer my question please: what is the success rate for embryos 'making the thaw' using the older freezing methods? Thanks!

[Carole]

Hi Crystal Tipps,

The success rate using the older freeze technology will vary considerably depending on the skill of the technicians using it. However, in my personal experience, it was not unusual to find that only 50% of the cells survived a slow freeze protocol. Obviously, when 50% of the cells in the embryo are sacrificed, the pregnancy rate is not going to be as good as from fresh embryo transfer. When we switched to vitrification, 90-100% of the cells typically survived vitrification and warming (warming is the term used for thawing when speaking about vitrified embryos) and our pregnancy rates doubled to almost what we saw with fresh transfers. My technicians were very good and I think the difference in outcome was wholly due to the inferiority of the slow freeze methods. However, there are a couple of Italian labs that report great results with slow freeze and there are some labs in both the US and Europe that can't seem to do vitrification correctly--so-- you need to determine what a lab's specific rates are for cell survival and pregnancy. Ask your program to share their rates. You can see 2008 reported rates for thawed embryos from non-donor cycles from SART reporting programs here: http://www.sart.org/find_frm.html Hope this helps, Carole

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[CrystalTipps]

Thanks Carole, that's really helpful. My facility is not listed on the SART list, so I don't think they are a member. However, I believe they use the older methods.

[Carole]

Hi Crystal Tipps,

You may already know this but every ART facility is required by federal law to report to CDC, so even if they are not SART members you can find the same pregnancy outcome report. Here's the site http://www.cdc.gov/art/ARTReports.htm The CDC also keeps a list of non-reporting clinics which were not compliant with the law. You won't be able to find out which method they use for cryopreservation on the annual report but you will find out their preg rate using frozen embryos.

SART generates income from its members by being the middleman to report data but the law doesn't require that you pay them to report data. Westat is the data management service that the CDC uses and using them to report is free or at least much cheaper than SART. Best Wishes, Carole

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