Five Years Experience with Oocyte Vitrification: It is Time to Change the Israeli Regulations for Social Oocyte Cryopreservation

Introduction: Fertility preservation for social reasons using oocyte cryopreservation is allowed in Israel for women between 30 – 41 years old.

Aim: To evaluate the outcome of IVF cycles using thawed oocytes.

Material and Methods: All IVF cycles at the IVF unit, Assuta Ramat Hachayal, where only thawed oocytes were used were included in this study. Most of the women vitrified their oocytes due to difficulties in obtaining a semen sample at the day of their oocyte retrieval.

Material and Methods: As women who vitrified their oocytes for social reasons have not returned yet to use them, this study evaluates all IVF cycles in which only thawed oocyte were used. Most of the women in this study vitrified their oocytes due to difficulties in achieving sperm at the day of their oocyte retrieval.

Results: From 2011-2016 we performed 86 IVF cycles using thawed oocytes. Mean (±SD) women age was 34.4 (±6.2) years. A total of 593 oocytes were thawed. Both oocyte survival and fertilization rates were 69%. The mean (±SD) number of transferred embryos was 1.5 (±1.1). The clinical pregnancy and delivery rates by women’s age groups >40 years were 31% and 25%, 15% and 15%, 13% and 0%, respectively. No pregnancies were seen in women with less than 5 vitrified oocytes.

Conclusions: The clinical pregnancy and delivery rates using oocytes, cryopreserved for nonsocial indications, are reasonable only for women aged <39 years. Based on these results, we suggest that the current regulations in Israel should be revised to offer oocyte vitrification for social reasons to women aged 28-39 years.