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Thawed embryo transfer and ectopic pregnancy: a meta-analysis

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Abstract

Purpose

To examine whether thawed embryo transfers can reduce the rate of EP.

Methods

The PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library databases and two randomized controlled trials registration centers were thoroughly searched until March 2017. The clinical outcomes of IVF/ICSI cycles were compared between thawed and fresh embryo transfer.

Results

Twenty-one articles were included in this meta-analysis. There were 801,464 pregnancies totally (thawed-ET: n = 158,967, fresh-ET: n = 642,497). The ectopic pregnancy rate was significantly lower in the group of thawed-ET than that in the group of fresh-ET (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.57–0.82; I2 = 83%). We subdivided the data into subgroups for D3 embryo transfer and D5 embryo transfer. We also found that the ectopic pregnancy rate was significantly lower with thawed-ET on D3 than that with fresh-ET (OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.53–0.85; I2 = 0%). The risk of ectopic pregnancy was significantly decreased with thawed-ET on D5 than that with fresh-ET (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.50–0.64; I2 = 45%).

Conclusion

Our results indicate that in contrast to fresh embryo transfers, thawed D3 or D5 embryo transfers can reduce the rate of EP.

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Funding

This study was not funded.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Reproductive Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Weijie Xing, Jianping Ou & Liuhong Cai

Authors
  1. Weijie Xing
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  2. Jianping Ou
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  3. Liuhong Cai
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Contributions

WJX: protocol/project development, developed literature search strategy, data collection or management, data analysis, manuscript writing/editing. JPO: protocol/project development, data analysis. LHC: data collection or management, data analysis.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Weijie Xing.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Xing, W., Ou, J. & Cai, L. Thawed embryo transfer and ectopic pregnancy: a meta-analysis. Arch Gynecol Obstet 297, 1345–1352 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4724-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4724-6

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