Abstract
Few cases have been reported in which the aspiration of a single follicle led to the recovery of two conjoined oocytes surrounded by a single zona pellucida. This report describes a successful embryo transfer with subsequent live birth derived from conjoined oocytes, and a later pair of conjoined oocytes in the same patient. After oocyte retrieval from a patient with polycystic ovary syndrome, two pairs of conjoined oocytes were collected. One oocyte was fertilized using in vitro fertilization (IVF) and developed to the blastocyst stage. This blastocyst was cryopreserved and later transferred to the uterus after separating the unfertilized conjoined oocyte. A successful pregnancy and healthy live birth was achieved. Two years later, the patient returned for a second IVF; one pair of conjoined oocytes was detected. One of the pair was fertilized and developed to a blastocyst, but was not transferred. We demonstrate that selective fertilization of a mature oocyte from conjoined oocytes by IVF can lead to the development of a blastocyst and subsequent pregnancy and live birth. To our knowledge, this is the second case report of successful live birth from conjoined oocytes. It may be the first case of repeated fertile conjoined oocytes from the same patient.
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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and its later amendments. Informed consent was obtained from all patients included in the study.
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Yano, K., Hashida, N., Kubo, T. et al. Repeated collection of conjoined oocytes from a patient with polycystic ovary syndrome, resulting in one successful live birth from frozen thawed blastocyst transfer: a case report. J Assist Reprod Genet 34, 1547–1552 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-017-1012-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-017-1012-5