Is ABO blood type associated with ovarian stimulation response in patients with diminished ovarian reserve?

Ovarian reserve and fertility parameters in post-pubertal females with congenital adrenal hyperplasia: a case-control study

OBJECTIVES

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by impaired activity of the enzyme required for cortisol and aldosterone production, resulting in increased adrenal androgen synthesis. Factors affecting fertility in CAH patients include ambiguous genitalia and their complications, excessive androgen secretion, adrenal progesterone hypersecretion, and various psychosocial factors. Serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) level is used to assess ovarian reserve in women. A few data on serum AMH levels in CAH patients are available in the literature. The aim of the study was to evaluate ovarian reserve in a group of post-menarche females diagnosed with CAH by measuring serum AMH level and assessing the number of antral follicles sonographically.

METHODS

A case-control study was conducted on 17 post-pubertal CAH females and 17 age-matched healthy female controls; the mean age of the patient group was 15.09 ± 3.55 years ranging from 11 to 24 years, while the mean age of the control group was 16.04 ± 3.72 years ranging from 12 to 25 years, the mean post-menarchal age of the patients group was 3.29 ± 1.37 years ranging from 1 to 6 years while the mean post-menarchal age of the control group was 4.13 ± 1.62 years ranging from 1 to 9 years. The degree of hirsutism was compared between the two groups according to the modified Ferriman-Gallwey score, clitoral length was assessed using a digital caliber. Serum levels of adrenal androgens in addition to basal levels of serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), estradiol, progesterone, and serum AMH were measured in both groups.

RESULTS

Patients had smaller uterine volumes, and smaller ovarian volumes but a comparable number of antral follicles and comparable serum AMH levels relative to controls.

CONCLUSIONS

Good compliance with treatment in patients with CAH results in good hormonal control, low risk of PCOS, good fertility parameters, and a good ovarian reserve.

Association of ABO blood groups with ovarian reserve: a retrospective cohort study in Chinese Han women younger than 40 years with infertility

BACKGROUND

Ovarian reserve reflects both the quantity and quality of oocytes available for procreation and is affected by many known and unknown factors. ABO blood type is related to several infertility processes, but it is unclear whether and how ABO blood type affects ovarian reserve.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of the study was to explore the correlation between ABO blood types and ovarian reserve in infertile Chinese Han women under 40 years of age undergoing the in vitro fertilization (IVF)/ intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)-embryo transfer (IVF/ICSI-ET) treatment.

METHODS

Women aged < 40 years who underwent IVF/ICSI-ET at our institution and had a documented ABO blood type were eligible for this study. In this study, patients were divided into two groups according to the diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) group (AMH < 1.1 ng/mL, AFC < 6) and the non-diminished ovarian reserve (non-DOR) group (AMH ≥ 1.1 ng/mL, AFC ≥ 6). The relationship between ovarian reserve and ABO blood group was determined by correlation analysis.

RESULTS

In this retrospective cohort study, clinical data were collected from 1690 Chinese Han women treated with IVF/ ICSI-ET in hospital records between April 2019 and March 2020 in the affiliated hospital of Southwest Medical University, located in Luzhou, China. The differences in age, duration of infertility, BMI, FSH, FSH / LH, and p (DOR vs non-DOR) for each parameter (DOR vs non-DOR) were statistically significant, and the differences in LH and E2 were not statistically significant. ABO blood groups were most prevalent in the DOR group with O (143, 34.8%) and A (122, 29.7%) and in the non-DOR group with A (428, 33.5%) and O (419, 32.8%). ABO blood groups were most prevalent in the DOR group with O (n = 57, 30.5%) and A (n = 54, 28.9%) and in the non-DOR group with A (n = 335, 34.0%) and O (n = 323, 32.8%) were the most frequent in the non-DOR group.

CONCLUSIONS

In this retrospective cohort study, we confirmed the lack of a significant association between ABO blood type and ovarian reserve. Further studies are needed to clarify whether there is any prognostic correlation between ABO blood group and ovarian reserve in women undergoing IVF/ICSI-ET.

Association of ABO blood groups and ART outcomes among subfertile South Asian women: a retrospective cohort study

Background

Blood groups are expressed on the surface of the red cells, and their association with the ovarian reserve and pregnancy outcomes has been an area of interest. The aim of the current study is to study the association of blood groups with live birth rates among South Asian women undergoing assisted reproductive technology treatment. It is a retrospective cohort analysis of women undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) at Christian Medical College and Hospital, India, between January 2007 and June 2017. All women ≤ 40 years undergoing the first ART cycle with fresh embryo transfer were included and stratified into four groups (A, B, AB, and O) based on the blood group type. The ART outcomes were analyzed among the groups.

Results

A total of 2524 women underwent fresh embryo transfer cycles during the study period, among whom 2079 women were analyzed. There was no statistically significant difference in the live birth rates for women with blood group B (odds ratio, OR 0.96, confidence interval, CI, 95% 0.74–1.24), blood group AB (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.58–1.35), and blood group O (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.68–1.12) with blood group A as the reference. After adjusting for important confounders, there was no statistically significant difference in the live birth rates for women with blood group B, AB, and O in comparison with blood group A.

Conclusion

The current study showed no association of blood groups with the ART treatment outcomes in South Asian women.

Parent Joint AB Blood Group Is Associated With Clinical Outcomes of in vitro Fertilization and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection Treatment in Chinese Women

Background

A number of publications have examined the relation between blood group and female infertility including ovarian reserve, recurrent miscarriage, and live birth. However, there is a lack of literature investigating joint mother/father ABO blood type in a large cohort. This study aimed to investigate the association between couple combinations for ABO blood groups and assisted reproductive technology (ART) outcomes in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF)/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

Methods

This retrospective cohort study included 30,717 couples who underwent IVF cycles between 2010 and 2019. The clinical outcomes of IVF treatment were the primary outcome. History of spontaneous miscarriage, embryo quality, and birth sex, weights, defects rate were also studied.

Results

There was no difference in the baseline demographics between the blood type groups. There was a statistically significant positive association between the combination of female blood type AB and male blood type AB with biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, and live birth rate (OR 1.36; 95% CI, 1.05–1.78; P = 0.02 and OR 1.31; 95% CI, 1.0–1.68; P = 0.031 and OR 1.28; 95% CI, 1.01–1.63; P = 0.041 respectively). No statistically significant difference was observed between joint mother/father ABO blood types and high-quality embryo rate, early abortion rate, birth sex, birth weights, and birth defect rate.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that the success rate of IVF/ICSI cycles in parent mating AB blood type is higher than that in other blood type combination groups.

Risk factors for inadequate response to ovarian stimulation in assisted reproduction cycles: systematic review

PURPOSE

Controlled ovarian stimulation is a fundamental part of a successful assisted reproduction treatment, and recognizing patients at risk of a poor response allows the development of targeted research to propose new treatment strategies for this specific group. The objective of this systematic review was to determine risk factors for poor ovarian response (POR) to controlled stimulation in assisted reproduction cycles described in the literature.

METHODS

The primary databases MEDLINE, Cochrane, LILACS, and SciELO were consulted, using specific terms with a restriction for articles in English or Portuguese published in the last 10 years.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

Our data suggest that environmental endocrine disruptors, tobacco, genetic mutations, endometriomas, ovarian surgery, chemotherapy, and short menstrual cycles are factors that influence stimulation in assisted reproduction cycles. Further studies are necessary for characterizing patients with prior risk factors.

ABO phenotype-protected reproduction based on human specific α1,2 L-fucosylation as explained by the Bombay type formation

The metabolic relationship between the formation of the ABO(H) blood group phenotype and human fertility is evident in the case of the (Oh) or Bombay blood type, which Charles Darwin would have interpreted as resulting from reduced male fertility in consanguinities, based on the history of his own family, the Darwin/Wedgwood Dynasty. The classic Bombay type occurs with the extremely rare, human-specific genotype (h/h; se/se), which (due to point mutations) does not encode fucosyltransferases 1(FUT1) and 2 (FUT2). These enzymes are the basis for ABO(H) phenotype formation on the cell surfaces and fucosylation of plasma proteins, involving neonatal immunoglobulin M (IgM). In the normal human blood group O(H), which is not protected by clonal selection with regard to environmental A/B immunization, the plasma contains a mixture of non-immune and adaptive anti-A/B reactive isoagglutinins, which in the O(h) Bombay type show extremely elevated levels, associated with decreased levels of fucosylation-dependent functional plasma proteins, suchs as the van Willebrand factor (vWF) and clotting factor VIII. In fact, while the involvement of adaptive immunoglobulins remains unknown, poor fucosylation may explain the polyreactivity in the Bombay type plasma, which exhibits pronounced complement-binding cross-reactive anti-A/Tn and anti-B IgM levels, with additional anti-H reactivity, acting over a wide range of temperatures, with an amplitude at 37 °C. This aggressive anti-glycan-reactive IgM molecule suggests the induction of ADCC (antibody-dependent) and/or complement-mediated cytotoxicity via overexpressed glycosidic bond sites against the embryogenic stem cell-to-germ cell transformation, which is characterized by fleeting appearances of A-like, developmental trans-species GalNAcα1-O-Ser/Thr-R glycan, also referred to as the Tn (T "nouvelle") antigen.

Antimüllerian hormone as a risk factor for miscarriage in naturally conceived pregnancies

OBJECTIVE

To determine the association between antimüllerian hormone (AMH), a measure of ovarian reserve, and miscarriage among naturally conceived pregnancies.

DESIGN

Prospective cohort study.

SETTING

Not applicable.

PATIENT(S)

Women (n = 533), between 30 and 44 years of age with no known history of infertility, polycystic ovarian syndrome, or endometriosis who conceived naturally.

INTERVENTION(S)

None.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)

Miscarriage, defined as an intrauterine pregnancy loss before 20 weeks' gestation.

RESULT(S)

After adjusting for maternal age, race, history of recurrent miscarriage, and obesity, risk of miscarriage decreased as AMH increased (risk ratio per unit increase in natural log of AMH = 0.83; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73, 0.94). Women with severely diminished ovarian reserve (AMH ≤ 0.4 ng/mL) miscarried at over twice the rate of women with an AMH ≥ 1 ng/mL (hazard ratio, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.3, 4.3).

CONCLUSION(S)

AMH levels are inversely associated with the risk of miscarriage. Women with severely diminished ovarian reserve are at an increased risk of miscarriage.

Early spontaneous multiple fetal pregnancy reduction is associated with adverse perinatal outcomes in in vitro fertilization cycles

The primary objective of this study is to investigate whether early spontaneous multiple fetal pregnancy reduction, also known as vanishing twin syndrome, is associated with adverse perinatal outcomes in fresh in vitro fertilization cycles. This is a retrospective cohort study of women with live singleton births with and without an early vanishing twin after fresh in vitro fertilization. Characteristics compared included incidence of preterm birth, overall birth weight, overall low birth weight, overall very low birth weight, and term low birth weight. In all, 4049 patients with live singleton births were included-853 and 3196 with and without a vanishing twin, respectively. The vanishing twin group had a lower overall birth weight compared to those without (3279.5 ± 369.9 vs 3368.6 ± 567.5 g; p < 0.01). Early vanishing twin was also associated with an increased odds of overall low birth weight (odds ratio: 1.75; 95% confidence interval: 1.36-2.25; p < 0.01) and increased odds of term low birth weight (odds ratio: 3.44; 95% confidence interval: 2.14-5.53; p < 0.01). Our study suggests that early vanishing twin is associated with lower overall birth weight and higher odds of overall low birth weight and term low birth weight in live singleton births after fresh in vitro fertilization.

Association of blood groups with ovarian reserve and outcome of in vitro fertilization treatment

BACKGROUND

The association between ABO blood groups and ovarian reserve in infertile patients has been a point of controversy.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to assess the correlation of certain blood groups with ovarian reserve and response to treatment in patients undergoing infertility treatment.

DESIGN

Retrospective medical record review.

SETTING

Infertility clinic in the assisted reproductive technology (ART) unit at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh Saudi Arabia.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

All patients under 40 years of age who attended the infertility clinic at a tertiary care centre in 2010 and underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment in 2010 and 2011 were divided into groups according to blood type, and clinical parameters were compared.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)

The association between blood groups and ovarian reserve using day 3 luteinzing hormone (LH) and follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) levels, and antral follical count (AFC).

RESULTS

In 424 patients who underwent 566 IVF cycles, age, LH, FSH and AFC were similar among the different blood groups (P=.9, .1, .5, respectively). with controlled ovarian stimulation, no difference was observed among the four groups in menopausal gonadotrophin (hMG) dose or the duration of stimulation. The number of oocytes retrieved, fertilization rate, cleavage rate, and number of embryos transferred were similar. There was no difference in the cancellation rate or pregnancy rate among the groups.

CONCLUSION

There was no significant association between blood type and ovarian reserve or response during IVF treatment in our population.

LIMITATIONS

Anti-Mullerian hormone levels are best correlated with ovarian reserve testing. Unavailability of AMH levels. Retrospective design.

Is anti-Müllerian hormone associated with IVF outcomes in young patients with diminished ovarian reserve?

AIM

To investigate whether anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is associated with IVF cycle outcomes in young patients with diminished ovarian reserve.

MATERIALS & METHODS

Retrospective study of patients <35 years of age undergoing fresh IVF who had at least two 8-cell, day-3 embryos transferred with grades 1, 1.5 or 2. Patients were subgrouped, a priori, based on serum AMH levels: <1 or >1 ng/ml and <0.5 or >0.5 ng/ml.

RESULTS

In total, 1005 patients were included. Patients in the >1 ng/ml group required lesser gonadotropins compared with the <1 ng/ml and the <0.5 ng/ml group. More oocytes were retrieved from the same group compared with the latter two (p < 0.001). Despite these differences, the overall rates of clinical pregnancy, spontaneous abortion and live birth were comparable between the two groups.

CONCLUSION

In patients with diminished ovarian reserve who have good quality embryos, AMH is not associated with clinical pregnancy, spontaneous miscarriage or live birth rates.