Disposition Preferences in Oocyte Preservation Patients

Purpose: To characterize the frozen oocyte disposition preferences of patients undergoing medical and planned fertility preservation.

Methods: All oocyte cryopreservation (OC) patients were identified between 2015 and 2018. Demographic information and fertility preservation (FP) indication (medical or planned) were identified for each patient. Oocyte disposition options included disposal, donation to research, or donation to a specified third party, which was decided at the time of initial consent and made available in the electronic medical record. The primary outcome was the disposition selection. Secondary outcomes included differences in demographic variables and disposition selections between medical and planned FP patients using chi-squared analysis.

Results: A total of 336 OC patients with a documented oocyte disposition preference were identified in the study timeframe. Patients were on average 34.5 years old (SD = 5.1) and were predominantly White (70.2%), nulliparous (83.0%), with a BMI of 24.7 (SD = 5.4). A total of 101 patients underwent OC for medical FP and 235 for planned FP. In both groups, the most commonly selected disposition option was donation to research (50% planned, 52% medical), followed by donation to a specified third party (30% planned, 30% medical), and finally disposal of oocytes (20% planned, 18% medical). There were no significant differences in disposition selection between each group. When comparing patient variables between groups, medical FP patients were more likely to be under the age of 35 and were less likely to be nulliparous (p < .001).

Conclusion: This study shows that oocyte disposition choices are similar in patients undergoing OC for medical and planned indications. As donation to research was the most commonly selected option in both groups, it is time to start thinking of streamlining ways to utilize this potential research material in the future.