Fewer than half of women seeking help from a fertility clinic succeed at having a baby after just one treatment. Now, some researchers believe they have come upon a way to improve those odds.
There is growing evidence suggesting that freezing an embryo after fertilization and thawing it for use in the woman’s next monthly cycle leads to higher pregnancy rates, compared with using the embryo immediately. A recent scientific review of three small randomized and controlled studies found that 50% of women got pregnant after receiving in vitro fertilization, or IVF, treatment using a recently frozen embryo. By contrast, women receiving fresh embryos had a 38% pregnancy rate. The review is slated for publication in Fertility and Sterility, the journal of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Read full article.