Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of intrauterine infusion of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) before embryo transfer (ET) in recurrent implantation failure (RIF) cases.
Methods: The authors retrospectively analyzed 54 ET cycles involving frozen and thawed high-quality blastocysts after intrauterine PRP infusion between September 2019 and November 2020. All patients had a history of at least two times of implantation failure on ET. A total of 54 patients were categorized into two groups: thin endometrium (39 patients) and unexplained implantation failure (15 patients). In the thin-endometrium group, the endometrial thickness (EMT) was <8.0 mm at cycle days 12-14 in the prior ET cycle.
Results: Among the 54 ET cycles after PRP infusion, 31 (57.4%) were positive for human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and 27 (50%) achieved clinical pregnancy, which was significantly better than that in prior ET cycles without PRP infusion (27.2% and 9.6%, respectively). The EMT was not increased at ET date on the PRP cycle compared with that in the prior ET cycle in both patient groups. Moreover, EMT was not different between the hCG-positive and hCG-negative groups.
Conclusion: Although intrauterine PRP infusion had no superior effect on increasing the EMT than conventional therapeutic agents, it resulted in high pregnancy rates in patients experiencing RIF with or without thin endometrium.
Keywords: assisted reproductive technology; embryo implantation; endometrial thickness; platelet‐rich plasma; recurrent implantation failure.
© 2021 The Authors. Reproductive Medicine and Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japan Society for Reproductive Medicine.