Retrieve eggs earlier during menstrual cycle if you’d like to get pregnant, older women told
Women 43 years old than older have been told to have their eggs retrieved earlier during their menstrual cycle to boost chances of falling pregnant from vitro fertilization (IVF), a new study says.
The study was carried out by Dr Yanguang Wu, Embyrologist and Associate Scientist at the Centre for Reproductive Medicine in New York.
Mechanisms that nourish and support the eggs decline rapidly after a woman turns 43, according to the US-based research team, which leaves the eggs exposed to potentially damaging hormones.
In the study, the team found that retrieving eggs from smaller follicles early on in the IVF procedure minimizes exposure to hormones, leading to higher-quality embryos and improved pregnancy rates.
The goal of the study, which was published in the Journal of Endocrinology, was to examine the dire statistics for older women trying to conceive using IVF technologies.
Women over age 44 have a 1.3 % chance at conceiving through IVF, yet for those between the ages of 38 and 39, chances are 23.6 %.
Comparing the reproductive tissue of egg donors in their 20s against those aged 30 to 37 and also against infertile patients between 43 and 47, the team found that the supportive cells — called granulosa cells — were sparse in the oldest age bracket.
Older women’s granulosa cells produce fewer cell receptors for follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), which regulates the cycle, yet their production of cell receptors for ovulation-inducing luteinizing hormone (LH) spikes, according to the study.
This means that the once-supportive granulosa cells of mature women could interrupt the egg development process in the ovaries and also the preparation of the uterus for pregnancy.
A false start significantly decreases the odds of conception, according to the researchers.
Normally, doctors wait until a woman’s follicles expand to a significant size before injecting hormones intended to ripen the eggs inside them, yet the team tried a different approach.
They administered the ripening hormone — human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) — early on when the follicles were just 16mm, instead of the 19 to 21mm that is standard in conventional IVF.
Indeed, the eggs harvested using this strategy were less mature than those extracted by the conventional method, yet they produced a higher number of quality embryos and higher pregnancy rates when compared to conventional IVF technologies.
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