There are so many things that can influence whether a perfectly looking embryo actually “sticks”. But have you thought about whether the person doing the actual TRANSFER may have something to do with success rates?
10-year study comparing doctors
A study published in Human Reproduction in February 2020 looked at the success rates after transfer, comparing doctors. They studied the ongoing pregnancy rates (defined as a pregnancy lasting >12 weeks) and checked who performed the transfer. In total, they analyzed 19,824 cycles over a 10-year period. There were 32 doctors who carried out the transfers.
The researchers found that it did indeed matter who performed the transfer. The pregnancy rates ranged from only 8% (the worst performing doctor) to 29% (the best performing doctor). Quite a difference!
In their study, experience (defined as how many times the doctor performed an embryo transfer) didn’t matter much, and they concluded “experience does not assure proficiency for everyone“.
Food for thought?
Reference: Cirillo et al. 2020. Human Reproduction, 35(2), 275-282.
