monthly IVF research roundup for June 2025

Monthly IVF research roundup (June 2025)

by Categories Monthly Roundup

Here’s your IVF research roundup for June 2025. Each month, I highlight everything I’ve shared on Remembryo — including new IVF study summaries, popular social posts, answers to community questions, and a full list of research highlights with links and short summaries from my newsletter. The paywall is off for this post.

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⚠️ Remembryo summarizes and interprets IVF research for educational purposes. Posts highlight selected findings and may simplify or omit study details, including methods, analyses, author interpretations, limitations, and protocol specifics (such as timing, dosing, or eligibility criteria). These summaries are not a substitute for the original study. Always review the full publication before treatment decisions.

🔗 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.

Remembryo posts

Here’s what I covered this month on Remembryo. Click any image to read more.

Zona-free eggs still have potential, shouldn't be discarded
A new case report adds to evidence that zona-free eggs, often discarded, can still fertilize and develop after ICSI, prompting the authors to urge embryologists not to discard them.

Endometriosis may shorten the window for embryo implantation
A study found that PCX, a surface molecule on endometrial cells, may lead to a shorter implantation window in women with endometriosis and might explain the stickiness of lesions outside the uterus.

Study examines how age may affect donor egg success rates
A large study found that IVF success declines with age even when using donor eggs, suggesting the uterus may age too.

Ovarian stimulation may harm egg quality through mitochondrial stress
A pilot study explored whether mitochondrial DNA mutations in follicular fluid could reflect egg quality, finding some early signs of a possible link, but there were some significant limitations.

ASRI releases 2025 immune therapy guidelines for recurrent pregnancy loss
The American Society for Reproductive Immunology has provided the first evidence-based guidelines for immunotherapy use, and recommends immunotherapies like corticosteroids only in cases of recurrent pregnancy loss with confirmed immune abnormalities.

Silent insulin resistance is common, linked to lower IVF success rates
A 2025 study found that nearly one in three IVF patients without PCOS or diabetes had insulin resistance, which was linked to lower success rates, but taking metformin before embryo transfer seemed to help.

Meta-analysis shows 1PN embryos may lead to healthy births, especially if euploid
A 2025 meta-analysis found that while 1PN zygotes don’t convert to blastocyst as well and have lower success rates when untested, those confirmed as euploid can lead to healthy births, but extra care is needed to confirm they are truly normal.

Top viewed posts on social

Here you can see the top 3 most popular posts for the month on Instagram, excluding the posts from above.

  1. After an embryo transfer, does flying have any impact on success rates? A new study found no difference in outcomes between those who likely flew and those who didn’t. Check out the full study on Pubmed.
  2. AI finds hidden sperm, helps couple get pregnant after 19 years. Doctors at Columbia have used an AI tool called STAR to help a couple get pregnant after 19 years of infertility by detecting rare sperm too hard to find manually. Read the full story on Time.
  3. Scientists take step toward two sperm creating a baby. Scientists created fertile male mice using only two sperm and no egg nuclear DNA — a first step toward same-sex reproduction, though the method is still far from human use. Read more on New Scientist.

And here’s the top 3 older Remembryo posts (based on Instagram story views). Click any image to read more.

Researchers in a 2022 study reported on the outcomes of 144 “abnormal” embryos, consisting of aneuploids and mosaics, finding a single live birth with an aneuploid and more favorable results with mosaics.

Researchers in a 2023 study found that patients with or without endometriosis have comparable live birth rates after transferring a euploid embryo, although endometriosis patients are more likely to produce aneuploid embryos.

Researchers found that excessive bending of a Cryotop, a cryostorage device used to freeze eggs or embryos, can damage embryos and reduce thaw survival rates.

IVF in the news highlights

Each week in the Remembryo newsletter, I share short summaries of IVF-related stories that made headlines. Below are 5 leading headlines for the month, with the first two summarized:

  1. IVF now brings one child to every classroom. More than 3% of UK births in 2023 were from IVF, roughly one child in every classroom, with growing numbers of older patients, single individuals, and same-sex couples seeking treatment. However, NHS funding for IVF has declined, leading to concerns about unequal access and delays that may affect patients’ chances of success. Check out the full story on BBC.
  2. Study: Acupuncture eases IVF stress and pain. A study found that integrating Whole Systems Traditional Chinese Medicine (WS-TCM), including acupuncture, into IVF treatment significantly reduced patients’ stress, pain, and anxiety, often after just one session. With nearly 90% of embryo transfers in the study including WS-TCM treatment, researchers say these integrative therapies can improve both emotional well-being and overall patient experience during fertility care. Check out the full story on Medical Xpress.
  3. Study: Early-life stress may influence endometriosis risk — Contemporary Pediatrics
  4. Semen allergy Is real, and often misdiagnosed — The Conversation
  5. Fertility doctor: IVF needs more regulation in the US — STAT

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IVF questions from the community

Here are select questions that I answered either in my Facebook group or on Reddit.

  1. What are normal blastocyst formation rates? Blastocyst formation rates can vary by age, but on average, about 60% of fertilized eggs reach the blastocyst stage. One study found that blastocyst formation rates didn’t start to drop until age 41. Read more in my post Age-specific blastocyst conversion rates and other IVF outcomes in good prognosis women.
  2. Can “perfect” euploid embryos still fail? We’ve had 10+ euploid transfers. Yes. PGT-A identifies broad chromosomal abnormalities and could miss smaller ones. A karyotype could help diagnose things like translocations that can cause repeated failed transfers. In one case, a couple experienced 20 years of infertility (and 10 failed IVF cycles) and found a translocation by karyotyping the male. They did PGT-SR (a specialized version of PGT) and had success. Read more in my post Karyotyping and PGT-SR help couple achieve live birth after 20 years of infertility.
  3. Do day 3 or day 5 embryos work better? Generally, day 5 blastocysts will have the highest chance of live birth per transfer. A recent meta-analysis combined the results of 32 studies and found that blastocysts tend to produce better outcomes. Read more in my post Meta-analysis compares cleavage stage (day 3) and blastocyst (day 5) transfer outcomes.

IVF research brief

🔒 The full research brief for the month begins below (paid subscribers only)

Each week I flag ~20 IVF studies I find most helpful. Some are covered in detail on Remembryo, but paying subscribers get short summaries and links to all of them, organized into categories like implantation, egg quality, PGT-A, etc. Below is the full list of 29 short summaries and links for studies that weren’t featured on Remembryo (available to paying members only). Note: I started this new format midway through June, so the list is shorter than usual.

🔍 Sneak peek: 3 select summaries from the month

If you like these, consider subscribing below to get the full list.

Paid subscribers get ~20 IVF study summaries each week, organized by topic and linked to the full text.

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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.