IVIRMA Global Research Presented at ASRM 2023 Shapes the Future of Reproductive Medicine

• Studies show shear wave elastography as potential tool for predicting implantation outcomes, determine risk factors for pregnancy loss, and reveal the rarity of recurrent implantation failure and consecutive pregnancy loss

BASKING RIDGE, NJ, October 19, 2023

IVIRMA Global, the largest reproductive medicine group in the world, has a long history of pioneering research in the field of assisted reproductive technologies that has led to major advances in assisted reproduction. Many of today’s standard practices, including elective single embryo transfer and preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy, have been shaped by the fertility group’s innovative research efforts. 

At the recently concluded American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) 2023 conference in New Orleans, investigators from the IVIRMA Global Research Alliance contributed further to the field, presenting 37 separate studies addressing clinically important questions that will continue to improve outcomes and help patients successfully grow their families.

Researchers from Reproductive Medicine Associates (RMA), the U.S. arm of IVIRMA Global, presented new research that could change fertility specialists’ understanding of the factors impacting successful implantation, pregnancy and live birth.

“Cultivating new knowledge through the research conducted at RMA offers practitioners invaluable insights into the complexities associated with reproductive medicine in order to provide evidence-based clinical care to their patients,” said Dr. Emre Seli, Director of Research for IVIRMA Global in the U.S.  

The predictive power of ultrasound SWE on implantation outcomes

One potentially significant advancement was revealed by the findings of an RMA prospective pilot study showing that ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE) assessing uterine tissue stiffness could be a useful prognostic tool for predicting implantation outcomes in patients undergoing IVF. The study found a strong relationship between 11 SWE measurements and ongoing pregnancy at nine weeks gestation following a single euploid frozen embryo transfer (FET).

Debunking the idea of recurrent implantation failure

A prior IVIRMA Global study had shown that there’s a 95% chance of achieving a pregnancy in patients undergoing up to three consecutive single euploid embryo transfers. A new large, first-of-its-kind RMA study involving 127,000 patients showed that clinical pregnancy and live birth rates do not significantly decrease by the fourth and fifth consecutive frozen euploid embryo transfer, giving new hope to the 5% of patients who have failed to conceive after three IVF cycles. This paradigm-shifting study further demonstrates that recurrent implantation failure (RIF) – a term used to denote unexplained multiple failures after embryo transfer – is extremely rare, affecting under 2% of patients.

Elucidating risk factors for pregnancy loss after IVF

A retrospective cohort study of 3,613 patients at RMA examined the demographic and IVF characteristics that could be associated with recurrent biochemical and clinical pregnancy loss among patients who underwent two PGT-A tested or untested single FETs. The research showed that for the euploid cohort, lower blastocyst count from the cycle producing the transferred embryo was predictive of a biochemical pregnancy loss (BPL) after the first and second FET, while a higher BMI was predictive of clinical pregnancy loss (CPL). No consistent factors were found in the untested group for predicting either a BPL or CPL. However, a separate study of the same population showed that consecutive BPLs and CPLs after two FETs are extremely rare which should be reassuring to patients who experienced a pregnancy loss following their first FET.

Additional IVIRMA Global research presented at the ASRM 2023 conference explored the use of artificial intelligence related to predictors of IVF success, effects of embryo mosaicism on pregnancy outcomes, novel interventions in patients with diminished ovarian reserve, clinical predictors of IVF outcome, interventions in severe male factor infertility, intricacies of genetic counseling, and determinants of patient engagement.