Egg production predicts a doubling of in vitro fertilization pregnancy rates even within defined age and ovarian reserve categories

Objective: To examine the age-independent association of ovarian response and IVF outcome in women with normal and abnormal ovarian reserve. Design: Retrospective analysis. Setting: Academic IVF center. Patient(s): Four thousand eight hundred sixty-two consecutive IVF cycles. Intervention(s): None. Main Outcome Measure(s): Outcome of IVF was analyzed as a function of ovarian response to controlled ovarian hyperstimulation and ovarian reserve. Results(s): The mean patient age was 36.2 +/- 4.5 years. Younger patients and patients with normal ovarian reserve were found to have better implantation and clinical pregnancy rates. Patients with normal ovarian reserve had a higher number of oocytes retrieved, mature oocytes, two-pronuclei embryos, and embryos transferred. A greater number of embryos were transferred for patients with higher ovarian response. Higher clinical pregnancy rates were seen in those patients who had more oocytes retrieved for all patients, regardless of age and ovarian reserve. In fact, clinical pregnancy rates more than doubled for specific patient groups. Conclusion(s): In an age-independent fashion, ovarian response is highly predictive of IVF outcome in women with normal and abnormal ovarian reserve. These findings highlight the importance of not solely relying on age when presenting and discussing IVF outcome data and are useful information when helping patients interpret their IVF cycle response. (C)2005 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.