Cancellation of in vitro fertilization treatment cycles predicts treatment outcome in female infertility patients aged 40 years or older

Purpose: To investigate potential indicators of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment outcome for female infertility patients aged ≥ 40 years based on the clinical course.

Methods: We retrospectively examined results of 111 female infertility patients aged ≥ 40 years undergoing IVF treatment. We investigated the relationship between treatment cycle cancellation and the final outcome of IVF treatment in female infertility patients aged ≥ 40 years.

Results: A total of 44 pregnancies were achieved. Overall pregnancy rate per initiated treatment cycle was 12.1%, and 24 spontaneous abortions occurred (54.5%). No woman aged ≥ 45 years achieved pregnancy. No patients conceived after 10 treatment cycles while 42 (11.5%) oocyte pick-up cycles and 120 (33.0%) embryo transfer cycles were canceled. Investigation of correlation with treatment cycle cancellation revealed that patients who experienced embryo transfer cancellation had a high spontaneous abortion rate while only a few patients who experienced oocyte pick-up cancellation achieved pregnancy and even fewer achieved a successful outcome.

Conclusions: Our study suggests that, in addition to patient age and number of treatment cycles, cancellation of treatment cycle also provides another useful indicator for pregnancy outcome.