OOCYTE DONATION
Efficacy of a transnational oocyte donation programme (Project Leader: Dr. Antonio La Marca)
The use of IVF with donor oocytes has become an increasingly common treatment modality for women who are unable to conceive using their own oocytes. Despite several advantages of oocyte vitrification in donation cycles, recent large cohort studies suggest that oocyte vitrification may lead to lower live birth rates compared with fresh gametes. On the contrary, increasing evidence suggest comparable outcomes with frozen compared to fresh embryo transfer. Hence, a new strategy could be to treat recipient in countries with limited availability of oocyte donors: the shipping of frozen sperm of the partner to the center where the donor will undergo pick up, insemination of fresh oocytes, the vitrification and shipment of the resulting embryos and to the country of origin. The aim of the project is to investigate the clinical efficacy of a novel fresh oocyte donation program based on transportation of semen and embryos between two countries.
ADENOMYOSIS AND EMBRYO IMPLANTATION
Adenomyiosis may impact on the implantation rate of embryo from donor cycles (Project Leader: Antonio La Marca)
Adenomyosis is a condition mostly diagnosed in the third and fourth decades of age. The recent improvement of the diagnostic tools has allowed clinicians to postulate a possible relationship between adenomyosis and infertility. Recent studies have showed that adenomyosis may have high prevalence among IVF patients and may affect the reproductive result. The objective of this project is to use 2D and 3D ultrasound imaging to investigate adenomyosis prevalence and severity in a population of infertile women undergoing embryo transfer in an egg donor IVF program.
Double ovarian stimulation as a new therapeutical approach for fertility preservation (Project Leader: Antonio La Marca)
The concept of continuous ovarian follicular growth, random start of ovarian stimulation and the segmenting stimulation and embryo transfer, has led to the possibility of performing consecutive ovarian stimulation cycles and oocyte retrieval procedures in order to increase the number of oocytes (and possibly embryos) available per patient. Double stimulation regimens consist in two successive ovarian stimulations in the follicular and ensuing luteal phase with two oocytes retrievals at the end of both ovarian stimulations. The objective of this study is to investigate the potential benefit of this new strategy for women wishing to preserve their fertility (oocyte cryopreservation), with particular emphasis in assessment of patient compliance and the number of mature oocytes preserved per month of treatment.