Uterine length measurement before embryo transfer in ICSI cycles - is there a role?

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt, Department of Obstetrics &Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt.

2 Department of Obstetrics &Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt.

10.21608/egyfs.2025.457891

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the embryo transfer (ET) tech-nique by measuring the length of uterus prior to embryo transfer (ULMbET) in comparison to the standard transab-dominal ultrasound-guided embryo transfer (TA-UGET).   
Methods: This randomized controlled trial was carried out on 116 IVF-fresh ET cycles which were randomly assigned to either ULMbET (n = 58) or TA-UGET (n = 58). The transfer of one to three high-quality fresh em-bryos was performed either under the guidance of trans-abdominal ultrasound (TA-UGET) or after transvaginal ultrasound measurement of the uterine cavity (ULMbET group). The rates of clinical pregnancy, ongoing pregnan-cy, and patient distress during ET were the primary out-come measures. Secondary outcomes encompassed the duration of the ET procedure, ET percentage requiring a repeat ET, and ET percentage involving a blood-stained catheter.   
Results: The two groups exhibited a comparable clinical, baseline, and ICSI cycle characteristics. Rates of clinical pregnancy (51.7% vs 48.3%, P=0.710) and ongoing preg-nancy (34.5% vs 31.0%, P=1) were comparable among the groups of ULMbET and TA-UGET. The mean score of discomfort intensity and the proportion of patients ex-periencing moderate-to-severe discomfort during ET both increased significantly with TA-UGET (2.1 vs 1.3 visual analog scale points and 20.7% vs 3.4%; P <0.001 and P = 0.004, respectively). 
Conclusion: The reproductive outcomes of IVF attained with ULMbET are similar to those obtained with TA-UGET; however, it is more patient-tolerated and techni-cally simple to be employed by a single operator.

Keywords