Do female translocations influence the ovarian response pattern to controlled ovarian stimulation in preimplantation genetic diagnosis?

BACKGROUND Ovarian response in female translocation carriers is not well understood. We aimed to evaluate the impact of chromosomal autosomal balanced translocations on the ovarian response to controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) in female carriers undergoing IVF and PGD. METHODS In a retrospective study, we included all female translocation carriers who underwent PGD at our centre. We compared these patients to female patients from couples with male translocation carriers who underwent PGD. RESULTS Results from 79 cycles of PGD from 33 female translocation carriers were compared with 116 cycles from 55 male translocation carriers. No difference was observed for patient characteristics: female age, anti-Müllerian hormone or antral follicle count. No difference in COS parameters was observed for the total dose of recombinant FSH, the number of retrieved oocytes and embryos on Day 3, for unaffected and transferred embryos. For the two groups, pregnancy rate was similar per cycle (12.7 versus 20.7%, P = 0.208). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that female translocation carriers had a significantly higher estradiol level on the day of hCG administration (+540 pg/ml, P = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS This paper is the largest to report ovarian response of female translocation carriers. This study showed that the ovarian response to COS was not impaired by balanced translocation status, suggesting that female chromosomal structural abnormalities did not influence the results of COS in PGD. Thus, female carriers of balanced translocations could be considered normal responders and standard doses of gonadotrophins used for ovarian stimulation.