IVF success may depend on what season eggs are collected, study finds
Global News
Timing may be helpful in fertility treatment, as a recent study found that human eggs collected during summer have a higher chance of resulting in live births.
Collecting human eggs for fertility treatment may create more favourable results when performed during the sunny summer season compared to a cloudy fall day, according to new research.
The Australian study, published Wednesday in Human Reproduction, looked at outcomes from frozen embryo transfers over an eight-year period and discovered that the time of year when eggs are collected from a person’s ovaries during fertility treatment may be impacted by the season and duration of sunshine.
“What we found is that the time (of the year) you put the embryo back didn’t actually seem to have any impact on the live birth rate,” Dr. Sebastian Leathersich, an obstetrician and gynecologist based in Perth, Australia, and lead author of the study told Global News.
Instead, the researchers found that if the egg had been collected in summer as opposed to the fall, the odds of having a successful embryo transfer and live birth were 30 per cent higher regardless of when the embryo was implanted in the womb.
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is one of the most expensive fertility treatments but the most successful, according to IVF Canada. The process involves removing eggs from ovaries and fertilizing them with sperm in a laboratory before being implanted in the womb.
According to Dr. Evan Taerk, a specialist in reproductive endocrinology and infertility based in Toronto, the methods of performing IVF in Australia are largely comparable to those in Canada.
“Although it’s not a complete uniformity, there are a lot of similarities between a cycle (done) in Australia and when you would do, let’s say in Montreal or Toronto or Winnipeg,” he explained.
During IVF, Leathersich said most clinics will flash freeze the embryo (a fertilized egg) in order to preserve it, meaning a lot of embryos are placed back in the womb having been frozen for months or even years.
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