The impact of ovarian endometrioma(s) on ART outcomes: retrospective case control study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To compare oocyte yield of women with intact ovarian endometrioma(s) to those withoutendometrioma undergoing ART. Secondary outcomes were implantation and live birth rates between thetwo groups.STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective case-control study was conducted to document eligible cases. A totalof 165 women with intact endometrioma(s) (END) were included in the final analysis. Total of 196 caseswith tubal factor infertility who underwent ART in the same time period were included as controls (CONTgroup). Cases and controls were matched for age, BMI and serum AMH concentrations. Ovarian stimulation characteristics and pregnancy outcomes including live birth data were documented for bothgroups.RESULTS: Despite similar demographic characteristics, significantly longer cycle duration and higheramounts of gonadotropin consumption was observed in END group compared to controls (p<0.001).Significantly lower number of retrieved oocytes, mature oocytes and mature oocyte fraction (%, no of retrieved/mature) were detected in END group. There was no statistically significant difference in terms offertilization, implantation and live birth rate per started cycle among groups. Cycle cancellations werealso similar. CONCLUSION: In women with intact ovarian endometrioma(s) undergoing ART, oocyte quantity, especially mature oocyte yield was hampered. However, adequate number of mature oocytes, successful fertilization and satisfactory implantation rates might be possible contributing to acceptable live births.Further randomized controlled trials of patients with different sizes of endometrioma(s) would be neededto confirm our conclusions.