Cervical dilatation during ovum pick-up in patients with cervical stenosis: effect on pregnancy outcome in an in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer program

Objective: To evaluate the results of cervical dilatation during an ovum pick-up session in patients with cervical stenosis who participated in an IVF-ET program. Design: A retrospective study. Setting: In vitro fertilization-ET unit. Patient(s): Forty-one treatment cycles in 22 patients with known cervical stenosis. In all patients previous transcervical ET had been either extremely difficult or impossible. Intervention(s): Cervical dilatation under general anesthesia during an ovum pick-up session, 48 hours before transcervical ET. Main Outcome Measure(s): Ease of ET procedure and clinical pregnancy rate (PR). Result(s): Cervical dilatation was performed in 41 IVF-ET cycles and resulted in easier transcervical ET in 39 cycles, but only one clinical and one extrauterine pregnancy. Conclusion(s): Cervical dilatation during the ovum pick-up session leads to easier ET in patients with cervical stenosis, but PRs after this procedure are very low.