Is There a Link Between Plasma Progesterone 1-2 Days Before Frozen Embryo Transfers (FET) and ART Outcomes in Frozen Blastocyst Transfers?

Objective: To study the efficacy of combined administration of subcutaneous and vaginal progesterone for priming frozen blastocysts transfers, looking at progesterone levels and ART outcome.

Design: Retrospective study.

Setting Patients: Three hundred and twenty frozen blastocyst transfer cycles conducted in 213 women aged up to 42 years, BMI between 18 and 30 kg/m, with anatomically normal uterus who underwent frozen embryo transfers (FETs) from February 2019 to December 2019 with a combined luteal-phase support (LPS) associating subcutaneous and vaginal progesterone. Patients with recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) were excluded.

Results: When using combined vaginal and subcutaneous LPS, SPL >10.50 ng/mL in 95% of cases, with a minimum value of 7.02 ng/mL. CPR, OPR, and global miscarriage rates were 38.4%, 30.9%, and 19.5%, respectively. Analyzing results per quartiles, revealed that miscarriage rates were significantly inferior, and IR were higher in the upper two quartiles of serum progesterone (>21.95 ng/mL) on the day before FET, while there was no difference in CPR and OPR.

Conclusions: We report ART outcome of frozen blastocyst transfers performed using a combination of vaginal and subcutaneous progesterone for LPS. ART results were honorable and SPL favorable 1-2 days before FET in 99% of cases.