Flushing of the Follicles in Ovum Pick-up Procedures Gives a Better Chance for Pregnancy in Low Ovarian Reserve Patients

Abstract

Abstract Background This study aims compare the pregnancy and live birth rates between the oocytes retrieved without follicular flushing FF(-) in the oocyte pick-up (OPU) procedure performed in women with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) and those retrieved by follicular flushing FF(+). Results The study was conducted among patients diagnosed with DOR according to Bologna criteria and applied to the clinic for IVF between 2017–2020. A total of 358 infertile women with follicles three and below on the hCG day, between the ages of 21 and 42, without severe male factor, without uterine anomaly, without uterine surgery, and who did not undergo PGD were included in the study. Each follicle was aspirated once in the OPU procedure, and if a follicle was retrieved, it was moved to the other follicle. If the follicle could not be retrieved, the oocyte was tried to be retrieved by flushing a maximum of 3 times. The number of oocytes retrieved, clinical pregnancy rate, and live birth rate were compared. Since all the oocytes retrieved in 143 patients were retrieved directly without the need for FF, it was named FF(-) group. Since at least one oocyte of the remaining 215 patients was retrieved by performing FF, it was named FF(+) group. Since some of the oocytes retrieved from 112 patients in the FF(+) group were retrieved with FF and some without FF, they were excluded from the study, and the remaining 103 cases formed the FF(+) group a total of 246 patients were compared. The mean number of MII oocytes ,the pregnancy rates, rates of live births and the abortion rates between two groups did not show any statistical difference. Conclusion FF applied during oocyte retrieval in DOR did not positively affect the number of retrieved oocytes, clinical pregnancy, and live birth rates even doing this may decrease the pregnancy rate because of the probable low quality egg but we should not forget that if we did not do flushing after once we aspirated the follicle we would not be able to obtain any pregnancy at all in this patients.