Total fertilization failure: is it the end of the story?

Purpose To study parameters that could predict in-vitro fertilization (IVF) success in patients who experienced total fertilization failure (TFF) with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in their previous cycles. Methods Cycle characteristics of patients with TFF (Group I, n = 136 cycles), cycles resulting in embryo transfer (ET) following TFF (Group II, n = 36 cycles) and recurrent TFF (Group III, n = 25 cycles) and were studied retrospectively. Demographic features, cycle characteristics of three groups were compared. Results Follicle count measuring 15–17 mm was significantly higher in group II when compared to group I ( p = 0.02). Total number of retrieved oocytes and mature oocytes were significantly higher in group II when compared to groups I and III ( p = 0.001). Estradiol level at oocyte pick up (OPU) day was significantly higher in group II when compared to group I ( p = 0.02). When the characteristics of ET cycles and preceding TFF cycles of the same patient were compared, total number of retrieved oocytes (5.11 ± 0.72 (95 % CI 3.69–6.52) vs. 11.44 ± 1.60 (95 % CI 5.29–17.59)) and mature oocytes (3.26 ± 3.66 (95 % CI 2.04–4.47) vs. 6.92 ± 5.61 (95 % CI 5.09–8.75)) were found to be significantly lower in TFF cycles ( p = 0.001). Five biochemical and 5 clinical pregnancies occurred while only 2 healthy babies were born, corresponding to a live birth rate 5.5 %. Conclusions Increasing the number of retrieved and mature oocytes may increase the success of fertilization in patients with a history of previous failed fertilization. However, live birth rate is still low in embryo transfer cycles.