This post provides a short summary of select news releases/studies from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) 2023 meeting. Some of the highlights include a new inclusive definition of infertility, AI matching embryologists in selecting embryos, no benefit in uterine PRP/GCSF, results of transferring 2,500+ mosaics, reduced pregnancy outcomes with rebiopsied embryos and shipped embryos.
Note that these studies may not have been published or peer reviewed yet. I also didn’t attend the conference, and this is all material I’ve gathered online.
🔗 Original studies are referenced in this post or within the linked Remembryo posts.
💡 Reminder: Terms underlined with a dotted black line are linked to glossary entries. Clicking these does not count toward your paywall limit.
Selected news releases
These are stories that were picked up by the media that covered presentations during the conference.
ASRM provides more inclusive definition of infertility. The ASRM has redefined infertility to reflect “that all persons, regardless of marital status, sexual orientation, or gender identity, deserve equal access to reproductive medicine,” said Jared Robins, CEO of ASRM. Check out the full story on ASRM Congress.
Infertility funding disparities and insurance denials highlighted. Two posters presented at the ASRM 2023 Scientific Congress & Expo discuss funding disparities in infertility research between men and women and reveal that despite the medical necessity of fertility treatments, insurance denials persist in many states, particularly when treatments are deemed medically unnecessary or experimental. Check out the full story on AMJC.
AI matches embryologists in selecting embryos. In a randomized controlled trial, AI performed just as well as human embryologists in choosing embryos for transfer, suggesting that AI can be used to standardize how embryos are selected. Check out the full story on MedPageToday.
Most reproductive medicine fellows report minimal impact of Dobbs decision. A survey found that the Dobbs decision, which reversed Roe v. Wade, had limited impact on patient counseling, genetic testing, embryo handling, and career location choices, but a majority agreed it would influence their final practice location decisions. Check out the full story on Healio.
BRCA mutations affect ovarian reserve and DNA damage. Women with BRCA1 mutations showed reduced ovarian reserve and increased DNA damage, while those with BRCA2 mutations showed DNA damage without changes in ovarian reserve, potentially impacting fertility. Check out the full story on Healio.
Diversity and variability found in popular fertility supplements. A study found that popular fertility supplements often consist of varying ingredients and dosages, with many containing common vitamins and minerals found in everyday multivitamins. Check out the full story on Healio.
Selected abstracts
These are interesting abstracts I found from ASRM’s list of nearly 800 (!) that were presented orally or as a poster during the conference. I’ll include the title of the abstract and some supporting information. The complete list can be found here. Sorry, all the titles are capitalized for some reason.
MICROFLUIDIC SPERM SELECTION (MFSS) IMPROVES EUPLOIDY RATES COMPARED TO DENSITY GRADIENT CENTRIFUGATION (DGC) ACROSS A BROADER PATIENT POPULATION THAT UTILIZED INTRACYTOPLASMIC SPERM INJECTION (ICSI). The authors performed a meta-analysis on studies that used Zymot or standard methods of sperm processing (density gradient), and found higher euploid rates with Zymot.
CHANGE IN EMBRYO SCORE POST CRYOPRESERVATION AND EMBRYO TRANSFER SUCCESS RATES. Embryos can be graded before and after thawing, and researchers found no difference in live birth rates when the grade changed or was the same.
SPERM CRYOPRESERVATION IS ASSOCIATED WITH AN INCREASED INCIDENCE OF ABNORMALLY-FERTILIZED EMBRYOS IN IN VITRO FERTILIZATION CYCLES (IVF) USING INTRA-CYTOPLASMIC SPERM INJECTION (ICSI). Higher rates of aneuploidy were found when using frozen sperm vs fresh sperm from donors.
SHORT-TERM ORAL SUPPLEMENTATION WITH NICOTINAMIDE MONONUCLEOTIDE RESTORES OOCYTE QUALITY IN CHEMOTHERAPY-INDUCED OVARIAN DAMAGE MOUSE MODELS. NMN improved NAD+ levels in mice, along with fertilization and blastocyst conversion rates.
PLATELET-RICH PLASMA AND COLONY-STIMULATING FACTOR ARE NON SUPERIOR TO PLACEBO IN IMPROVING ENDOMETRIAL QUALITY DURING FROZEN EMBRYO ICSI CYCLES – A DOUBLE-BLIND RCT. Patients received either GCSF, PRP or saline (control) that was administered to the uterus before transfer, which showed similar live birth rates across all treatments, even when looking at poor responders, those with PGT-A and those with recurrent implantation failure.
ASSESSING THE RISK-BENEFIT OF MOSAIC EMBRYO TRANSFERS USING 3,500+ CLINICAL OUTCOME DATAPOINTS. Over 2,500 mosaics were transferred, with the following groups performing best to worse: low level segmentals, high level segmentals, low one/two whole chromosome, low complex, high whole one/two chromosome, and high complex. Of the 582 pregnancies, 7 had persistent mosaicism.
SINGLE THAWED NON-MOSAIC SEGMENTAL ANEUPLOID EMBRYO TRANSFER RESULTS IN ONGOING PREGNANCY AND NORMAL PRENATAL DIAGNOSIS. This study looked at the transfer of 12 segmental aneuploid embryos, resulting in an ongoing pregnancy rate of 33%.
HOW MANY FROZEN EGGS DO I NEED TO GET ONE EUPLOID EMBRYO? AN ANALYSIS OF 450 AUTOLOGOUS OOCYTE THAW PATIENTS. This study found that women <35 needed an average of 11 mature eggs to get 1 euploid embryo, while women 35-37, 38-40 and >41 needed 12, 16 and 41 mature eggs.
COMPARISON OF PREGNANCY OUTCOMES BETWEEN SINGLE-BIOPSIED AND REBIOPSIED EUPLOID EMBRYOS. Clinical pregnancy rates dropped from 64.47% to 49.06% with rebiopsied embryos, but there was no statistically significant difference in live birth rate.
SHIPPED EMBRYOS: AN EVALUATION OF PREGNANY OUTCOMES. Thaw survival rates were similar but the live birth rate was lower with shipped embryos (53% vs 37%).
LIVE BIRTH OUTCOMES FOLLOWING THE ULTRAFAST BLASTOCYST WARMING TECHNIQUE. Embryos thawed with the ultrafast technique (which skipped dilution solution and wash solution washes, instead using washes in culture media) showed similar thaw survival and live birth rates.
ABNORMAL POC RESULTS AFTER SINGLE EUPLOID BLASTOCYST TRANSFER EXPOSES THE PREVALENCE OF CONTRIBUTING FETAL CHROMOSOMAL MOSAICISM. Transfer of nearly 4,000 euploids resulted in live births as well as clinical losses, 22 of which had abnormal products of conceptions (POC), which mostly had triploidy or mosaicism.
EMBRYO RESCUE: EUPLOIDY AND WHOLE CHROMOSOME ANEUPLOIDY RATES IN EMBRYOS INITIALLY CATEGORIZED AS 0 PN AND 1 PN AT FERTILIZATION CHECK. Abnormally fertilized 0PN and 1PN zygotes had euploidy/transferrable rates of 68.2% and 41.3% vs 60.4% in normally fertilized 2PNs.
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About Embryoman
Embryoman (Sean Lauber) is a former embryologist and the founder of Remembryo, an IVF research and fertility education website. After working in an IVF lab in the US, he returned to Canada and now focuses on making fertility research more accessible. He holds a Master’s in Immunology and launched Remembryo in 2018 to help patients and professionals make sense of IVF research. Sean shares weekly study updates on Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit regularly. He also answers questions on Reddit or in his private Facebook group.
