Influence of embryo culture medium on incidence of ectopic pregnancy in in vitro fertilization

Objective To explore the effect of type of media used to culture embryos for IVF on the incidence of ectopic pregnancy (EP). Design Retrospective analysis. Setting University-affiliated IVF center. Patient(s) The retrospective analysis involved 23,481 women who underwent IVF-ET cycles between 2011 and 2013. Intervention(s) None. Main Outcome Measure(s) There was an association between EP and the culture medium. Result(s) During 23,481 fresh transfer cycles, 364 patients were diagnosed with EP. The EP to clinical pregnancy rate was 3.01% in the G5 group, 3.89% in the G5 Plus group, and 4.04% in the Global group. The EP to clinical pregnancy rates were significantly higher in the G5 Plus and Global groups than in the G5 group. After adjusting for confounding factors, the incidence of EP was significantly associated with the G5 Plus and Global media. Conclusion(s) Our results showed that there is an association between incidence of EP and the culture medium. The rates of EP to clinical pregnancy were significantly higher in the G5 Plus and Global media than in the G5 medium.