Research Question Do endometrial stromal cells from primary infertile patients with severe ovarian endometriosis display differential secretory profile of inflammation-associated cytokines during the implantation window that may cause infertility? Design Forty eight cytokines in conditioned medium of isolated endometrial stromal cells obtained from primary infertile patients without endometriosis (control

Research Question : Endometriosis, an inflammatory disease, is assumed to be associated with an increase in the production of growth-related cytokines. Based on the emerging immunomodulatory role of vitamin D3 in different inflammatory conditions, we aimed to examine the modulatory effect of this hormone on the gene expression levels of PDGF, MDGF, and EGF in peritoneal fluid mononuclear cells (PFMCs)

Research Question Sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), androgen receptor (AR), luteinizing hormone beta polypeptide (LHB), progesterone receptor membrane component 1 (PGRMC1) and progesterone receptor membrane component 2 (PGRMC2) regulate follicle development and maturation. Their mRNA expression was assessed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of normal and poor responders, during ovarian

Fertility societies worldwide responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by recommending that fertility clinics close, or sharply reduce the clinical operation, leading to a shift in the management of IVF laboratories in three phases: (1)Shutdown preparation; (2)Maintenance during shutdown; (3)Restart. Each of these phases carries distinct risks that need identification and mitigation, forcing laboratory managers

Research Question A recent meta-analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS) has identified that SNP rs1784692 in gene ZBTB16 is associated with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in the European population. In this study, we investigated whether rs1784692 is a risk factor for PCOS in Han Chinese women. Design A case-control study was conducted for Han Chinese women, comprising 526 PCOS patients

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic on 11th March 2020 by the World Health Organization, halting the principal income activities worldwide. The International Monetary Fund predicts that the imminent economic recession will be worse than the global financial crisis of 2008, which severely affected the economy of Southern-European countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain. There

Fertility care providers have an obligation to provide safe and effective care to patients. When a user of assisted reproductive technology (ART) is living with a blood-borne viral infection (BBVI: HIV, hepatitis C, or hepatitis B) physicians and ART laboratory personnel need to know the requirements for providing quality care. Recent developments in the treatment of BBVIs and understanding of transmission

Research question What is the fertility preservation (FP) rate among transgender women who received professional fertility counseling compared to transgender men? Design This retrospective cohort study included 56 transgender women and 56 transgender men referred to comprehensive fertility counseling at the Gender Clinic of the medical center's Fertility Institute between January 2017 and April 2019

The success rate of medical and surgical treatment for endometriosis is limited. Empowering patients suffering from endometriosis by giving them opportunities to positively influence their symptoms could result in increased quality of life. Changing diet is one of the self-management activities. Current endometriosis diets are mostly based on limited evidence. In order to gain more insight in the role

Research question Does the aggregation of M2 macrophages affect the expression of GRIM-19 in adenomyosis༟ Design Except the collecting of endometrial tissues, GRIM-19 small interfering RNA were constructed to regulate the expression of GRIM-19 in Human endometrial stromal cells (hESCs). At the same time, hESC cells were co-cultured with M2 macrophages to detect the influence of M2 macrophages in hESC

Research question Does double stimulation (DuoStim) affect cumulus cell (CC) gene expression in luteal phase-derived oocytes? Design This prospective observational study included 39 patients with reduced ovarian reserve. Fifteen patients (Group I) underwent in vitro fertilization with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist in the follicular phase and 24 patients (Group II) underwent DuoStim. A

Research Question This study aims to investigate potential differences between lean women with and without PCOS regarding fat content in liver, vertebrae, paraspinal muscles, pancreas, subcutaneous (SCAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) areas by using magnetic resonance imaging – proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF), a novel, noninvasive, operator-independent method which has comparable diagnostic

Research question Are low birth weight, prematurity and/or being born small for gestational age associated with a higher risk of male factor infertility in adulthood? Design A retrospective study on a clinical sample of 892 men, diagnosed with an infertility factor (male, female, combined or unexplained) together with their female partner at a University Hospital clinic in Sweden between 2005 and 2010

Research Question To evaluate pre-existing comorbidities, obstetric risks factors and adverse obstetric and neonatal outcomes in pregnancies conceived by oocyte donation (OD), as compared to spontaneously conceived (SC) pregnancies or by conventional in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI). Design In a retrospective single-centre cohort study, data from singleton deliveries

RESEARCH QUESTION Do endometriotic lesions undergo endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT)? DESIGN Lesion samples from 30 patients each with ovarian endometriomas (OE) and deep endometriosis (DE), and control endometrial tissue samples from 30 women without endometriosis were analyzed. In vitro experimentations using the human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) line were conducted. Immunofluorescence

Research-question Does anogenital distance (AGD) differ in newborn infants conceived through assisted reproduction technologies (ART) compared with those conceived naturally. Design In this case-control study, anthropometric and anogenital measurements were performed in 247 male and 200 female newborns born after ART (n=121) or natural conception (n=326), within 24 hours of birth. Anogenital measurements

Research Question: Are the candidate genes for age at menarche associated with a risk of endometriosis? Design: Fifty two candidate SNPs for age at menarche, their gene-gene and gene-environment interactions were analyzed for possible association with endometriosis in a sample of 395 patients and 981 controls. Association of the polymorphisms was analyzed using the method of logistic regression and

This meta-analysis aimed to offer a general picture of the available data regarding the effects of early-life factors and risk to develop endometriosis in adult life. An advanced, systematic search of online medical databases PubMed, EMBASE and CINAHL was limited to full-length manuscripts published in English in peer-reviewed journals up to February 2019. Log relative risk were used to calculate the

Research question Is there a difference in live birth rate between a freeze-only strategy and fresh embryo transfer, and what is the effect of varying progesterone levels on the day of hCG administration? Design This was a secondary analysis of data from 3 randomized trials comparing the live birth rate after elective frozen vs. fresh embryo transfer. These three trials respectively enrolled 1508 women

Research Question : Does mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number predict euploid human blastocysts’ reproductive potential? Design : To investigate whether the amount of mtDNA in trophoectoderm (TE) biopsies correlates with IVF outcome, euploid human blastocysts (n=615) that underwent single embryo transfer were analyzed. Furthermore, to determine whether mtDNA content is predictive of reproductive outcome

Research question Women who face age-related fertility decline have the option to safeguard future reproductive potential by banking oocytes or ovarian tissue. We do not know which method women prefer and which factors are important in their decision making. Design We performed a qualitative interview study and recruited women through monthly information sessions at an university hospital about oocyte

Research question What is the association of the entire range of the trigger-day endometrial thickness (EMT) with the live birth rate (LBR) following in vitro fertilization (IVF) and fresh embryo-transfer (ET)? Although EMT is amenable to convenient non-invasive routine measurement, studies of the association between the pre-trigger EMT and ART outcome have yielded equivocal results. Design A cohort

Generating translatable evidence to improve patient care has proved challenging in reproductive medicine, with many “add-on” treatments in routine assisted conception clinical practice, which have not been reliably tested. This has consequences for patient care; specifically, IVF pregnancy rates have not improved. A change of culture is required in our profession, from indiscriminately applying the

The COVID-19 pandemic is an extraordinary global situation and all Countries have adopted their own strategies to diminish and eliminate the spread of the virus. All measures are in line with the recommendations provided by WHO. Scientific societies, such as ESHRE and ASRM, have provided recommendations and guidance to overcome and flatten the growing curve of infection in patients that undergo IVF

Research Question To investigate the best intervention time and method for HCSP patients who want to preserve intrauterine pregnancy. Design Patients who were diagnosed with HCSP from January 2014 to May 2019 were enrolled. Due to the rare occurrence of HCSP, data from published research were also extracted to augment the analysis. Clinical characteristics and medical documents related to fetal reduction

Research Question Does obesity impact on endometrial gene expression in women with endometriosis, specifically women with stage I disease? Design Differential gene expression analyses was performed on endometrium from women with and without endometriosis (n = 169). Women were diagnosed following surgical visualisation and staged according to the revised American Society for Reproductive Medicine (stage

Research Question : What is the expression pattern of microRNA in exosomes isolated from eutopic endometrial stromal cells (EuESCs) of women with endometriosis-associated infertility? Design : Small RNA sequencing was conducted in exosomes isolated from EuESCs of women with endometriosis-associated infertility and normal endometrial stromal cells (NESCs) of fertile women without endometriosis. The

Research Question Does subcutaneous progesterone (SC) provide similar live birth or ongoing pregnancy (LB/OP) rates as vaginal progesterone (VP) in frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycles? Design A total of 214 women were included in this retrospective cohort study. The study group consisted of 107 women who received SC for FET in artificial cycles and 107 women receiving VP who were matched for age and

Research Questions Can a previously defined relationship between sperm capacitation and the probability of a man to generate pregnancy within three cycles, prospectively predict male fertility in diverse clinical settings? What is the prevalence of impaired sperm fertilizing ability in men questioning their fertility (MQF)? Does this relate to traditional semen analysis (SA) metrics? Design Multicentric

The advent of vitrification has transformed the therapeutic landscape in ART. Clear evidence for this is provided by the dramatic rise in the number of FET cycles being carried out annually. In this article, we review the reasons that underlie this trend and the current evidence that points to the place FET cycles will come to inhabit in the future. Safety issues have been central to the narrative

Research question What is the performance of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) using the Elecsys® AMH assay in predicting ovarian response in women treated with 150µg corifollitropin alfa (CFA)? Design We conducted a multicentre prospective study between December 2015-April 2018.All women were aged 18–43 years old, had regular menstrual bleeding, a body mass index of 17–35 kg/m2 and weighed >60Kg.Exclusion

The outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been a major epidemic threat all over the world. Such a public health emergency can greatly impact various aspects of people's health and lives. This paper focused on its potential risks on reproductive health, including reproductive system and function, as well as gamete and embryo development, which was underpinned by the virus, drugs

Research question To investigate whether organoids can be established from endometrial tissue of infertile women and whether tissue cryopreservation allows for establishment of organoids comparable to organoids derived from freshly biopsied endometrial tissue. Design Endometrial tissue was obtained from six infertile women through minimally invasive biopsy using a Pipelle catheter and subjected to

Research question What are the main risk factors associated for EP and the true incidence of ectopic pregnancies (EP) in an IVF program? Design A retrospective single centre study including 12,429 blastocyst transfers (8,182 fresh and 4,247 cryo-cycles) between 01/2010 and 12/2017 was conducted. IVF outcome was analysed and EP risk was evaluated according to patient's characteristics and ART treatment

Research question We aimed to assess the clinical characteristics of pregnancies complicated by fetal growth restriction (FGR) and preeclampsia (PE) in in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients, and the correlation to histopathological placental findings in such pregnancies. Design This was a retrospective cohort of deliveries at our institution, of patients’ files with a diagnosis of FGR and/or PE. We

Research question In this study, correlation between Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) and oocyte survival after vitrification is explored. Association between AMH and blastocyst formation after oocyte vitrification is also assessed. Design Retrospective observational analysis performed in private IVF centre. 4507 MII warmed oocytes were included from 450 couples, predominantly of Arab ethnicity. Couples

Research question Is polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure associated with the reproductive outcomes of IVF treatment? Design This study was a prospective small-scale monocentric cohort study of couples who underwent IVF treatment between January 2018 and June 2019. Two members of each couple answered a questionnaire on PAH exposure and provided urine samples to measure urinary 1-hydroxypyrene

Asherman syndrome is a rare acquired clinical condition resulting in the obliteration of the uterine cavity causedby the presence of partial or complete fibrous intrauterine adhesions involving at least two-thirds of the uterine cavity potentially obstructing the internal cervical orifice. Common reported symptoms of the disease are alterations of the menstrual pattern with decreased menstrual bleeding

Research question Does the presence of ovarian endometriomas affect ovarian response to ovarian stimulation after adjusting for age and ovarian reserve markers? Design This retrospective cross-sectional study compared the ovarian response between patients with ovarian endometriomas and women with other infertility factors undergoing their first ovarian stimulation for IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection

The emergence of the novel coronavirus infection that arose in Wuhan, China in December 2019 has resulted in an epidemic that has quickly expanded to become one of the most significant public health threats in recent times. Unfortunately, the disease has spread globally. On March 11th (2020) World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 a pandemic and has called governments to take urgent and aggressive

RESEARCH QUESTION What are the protein levels and localization of oestrogen receptors (including ERa, ERb and G protein-coupled oestrogen receptor [GPER]) and hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1a) in normal control endometrium (COEM) and ectopic endometrium from abdominal wall endometriosis (AWE). DESIGN AWE (n = 20) were obtained during surgery; COEM (n = 40) were collected by curettage. All tissues

Since the start of the latest coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak, the number of infected individuals and cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been increasing exponentially worldwide. Of interest is existing evidence that orchitis can develop due coronavirus infection. It is therefore not unreasonable to believe that SARS-CoV-2 could be transmitted by semen. Consequently, it is of paramount importance

Research Question Is there an association between ovarian response and perinatal outcomes? Design This was a retrospective, single-center cohort study including all women undergoing their first ovarian stimulation cycle in a GnRH antagonist protocol, with a fresh embryo transfer that resulted in a singleton live birth from January 2009 to December 2015. Patients were categorized into four groups according

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global situation. As assisted reproductive technology (ART) specialists, we should be cautious, carefully monitoring the situation while contributing by sharing novel evidence to counsel our patients, both pregnant women and would-be mothers. Time to egg collection and drop-out rates are critical parameters for scheduling treatments once the curve of infections

The current pandemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has focused the attention of medical-care providers away from non-life-threatening diseases, including infertility. Although infertility does not jeopardize the physical survival of infertile couples, it does jeopardize their future quality of life. Human infertility can be caused by a number of factors, some of which are age-dependent, and

RESEARCH QUESTION The morula stage is a poorly understood developmental stage. In the morula, cell compaction can involve all or only some blastomeres, with largely unknown implications. Here, the prevalence, underlying morphokinetic mechanisms and possible consequences of partial compaction, were investigated. DESIGN Preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies (PGT-A) cycles of women whose embryos

RESEARCH QUESTION What is the frequency of cervical pregnancy in women undergoing assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and what are the risk factors? DESIGN Case-control study of women undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) at 25 private assisted reproduction clinics run by the same group in Spain. Two control groups (tubal ectopic pregnancies and intrauterine pregnancies) were established

RESEARCH QUESTION Does a shorter follicular phase length (FPL) affect cycle outcomes and endometrial development among women undergoing gonadotrophin ovarian stimulation/intrauterine insemination (OS/IUI)? DESIGN Retrospective cohort study of 4773 OS/IUI cycles among 2054 patients. FPL was analysed first continuously, then dichotomously using an arbitrary cut-off at the 15th percentile (8 days) to

RESEARCH QUESTION Current knowledge of cancer risk among women who undergo IVF is based mainly on studies of women treated in their thirties, frequently with short follow-up periods. Therefore, information about cancer risk among infertile menopausal women is limited. We aimed to evaluate the risk of cancer among IVF patients treated at age 40 years and older, followed up for an extended period. DESIGN

RESEARCH QUESTION What is the prevalence of triplet and quadruplet pregnancies after single embryo transfer (SET) in Japan. DESIGN A retrospective observational study was conducted on 274,605 pregnancies after 937,848 SET cycles in registered assisted reproductive technology (ART) data from the Japanese ART national registry database between 2007 and 2014. A questionnaire survey of ART centres was

Research question Can single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of genes related to progesterone synthesis predict the risk of premature serum progesterone elevation in women undergoing gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonist protocols for ovarian stimulation? Design A total of 765 women were divided into high progesterone and normal progesterone groups according to progesterone concentration on the day

RESEARCH QUESTION Natural fecundity and the success of IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) rate both decrease with age. For this reason, in women older than 35 years, it is generally recommended to start the infertility work-up after only 6 months. This assumption, however, may expose couples to over-diagnosis and over-treatment. DESIGN A theoretical model aimed at assessing the effects

RESEARCH QUESTION What is the association between endometrioma-affected ovaries, their follicular fluid inflammatory microenvironment, and ovary-specific oocyte and embryo yield and quality? DESIGN Exposure-matched prospective cohort study conducted at a university-affiliated infertility clinic. Thirty-four women presenting for oocyte retrieval were enrolled between 2012 and 2013: women with unilateral

RESEARCH QUESTION Which guideline-based key recommendations can be selected for high-quality female oncofertility care? DESIGN The Delphi method was used to select a set of key recommendations for female oncofertility care. First, recommendations from (inter)national clinical practice guidelines were selected in four domains: risk communication, referral, counselling and decision-making. Thereafter

RESEARCH QUESTION Is there an association between the use of sympathomimetics for asthmatic disease and semen quality in humans? DESIGN Between 2007 and 2012 a prospective cohort study was conducted among couples visiting the preconception counselling clinic at a tertiary hospital in the Netherlands. The study included 882 men of subfertile couples and information on medication use was obtained from