Effect of Vitrification and Warming Media on Pregnancy Rates in the Context of Oocyte Donation

Effect of the Use of Oocyte-specific or Universal Vitrification and Warming Media on Pregnancy Rates in the Context of Oocyte Donation

Vitrification has become the gold standard for oocyte and embryo cryopreservation. Several commercial kits are available on the market, some are designed for specific developmental stages (e.g. oocytes, zygotes, cleavage-stage embryos or blastocysts) and others are suitable for several stages, therefore termed "universal". Oocytes, cleavage-stage embryos and blastocysts display different levels of resistance to cryopreservation, due to stage-specific properties. While the composition and the exposition protocol of stage specific media are optimized for specific developmental stages, "universal" media display a single composition, therefore exposition protocols should be adapted to each specific developmental stage to ensure optimal survival rates.

The main objective of this study is to determine whether the shift from "oocyte specific" vitrification and warming media to "universal" media has an impact oocyte survival, embryological and clinical outcomes.

A retrospective, monocentric study comparing the clinical and embryological outcomes of 111 oocyte recipient cycles with ICSI from March 2016 to July 2020. Baseline characteristics (donor age and BMI, ovarian stimulation protocol, number of collected oocytes) of the 81 related donations were also analysed.

Two generations of vitrification and warming media were used during this period:

• "Oocyte-specific": RapidVit™ Oocyte and RapidWarm™ Oocyte, Vitrolife
• "Universal": RapidVit™ Omni and RapidWarm™ Omni, Vitrolife Patients were divided in 3 groups according to the combination of the vitrification medium and the warming medium : "specific/specific" (S/S), "specific/universal" (S/U) and "universal/universal" (U/U)..

Inclusion Criteria:

• Recipient couples undergoing an oocyte donation ICSI cycle from March 2016 to July 2020 for whom the allocated oocytes were vitrified in our center between July 2015 and January 2020

Exclusion Criteria:

• Recipient couples undergoing an oocyte donation ICSI cycle from March 2016 to July 2020 for whom the allocated oocytes were vitrified prior to July 2015 or after January 2020.