MedWire News: Elective single embryo transfer (eSET) in women younger than 35 years who are in their first IVF cycle and have at least three top-quality embryos is as effective as double embryo transfer (DET) and significantly decreases multiple birth rates, suggest study results.

It is well known that eSET reduces twin pregnancy rates while obtaining acceptable overall pregnancy rates, but “there is no outcome measurement consensus to evaluate the effectiveness of eSET versus DET,” explain Shaliha Bechoua (Bourgogne University, France) and co-authors.

To investigate, the researchers performed a study of 483 and 243 couples using DET and eSET, respectively. Women included in the study were younger than 35 years of age, were undergoing their first IVF cycle, and had at least three embryos of good quality.

Main outcome measures were defined as the probability of a woman having at least one live-born infant and the probability of a live birth per embryo utilized (PLBEU).

Women using DET and eSET had a similar probability of delivering at least one live-born infant (60.5 and 60.8 percent, respectively) and PLBEU (17.6 and 18.9 percent, respectively). Furthermore, the total multiple birth rate was decreased by a factor of 3.6 when using eSET compared with DET (7.8 vs 28.1 percent, respectively).

“We assert that the eSET strategy does not compromise the likelihood of having a baby,” conclude Bechoua and team.

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