In vitro fertilization and embryo replacement at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Kiel, F.R.G.

From July 1982 until September 1983, 194 pelviscopies were performed in Kiel (phase I). The patients were stimulated either with Clomid/human menopausal gonadotropin hMG)/human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) or with Clomid/hCG or hMG/hCG alone. Follicular maturation was monitored by ultrasonography and the daily measured E2 and luteinizing hormone (LH) response. Surgic therapeutical pelviscopy with follicular puncture followed 36 hr after hCG application. Oocytes were incubated in either Ham's F-10 or Menezo B2 medium in an automatically gas-controlled exsiccator. Forty-eight hours after insemination normal-looking four- to eight-cell embryos were replaced into the uterine cavity. Oocytes were successfully collected in 87.4% of the patients, with an average of 2.2 oocytes per patient. Eighteen pregnancies resulted of 101 embryo replacements. The overall pregnancy rate was 16.2% per replacement and 9.3% per pelviscopy. Undivided oocytes and polyploid embryos were analyzed cytogenetically. From October 1983 to October 1984 the overall pregnancy rate after 144 pelviscopies and 88 embryo replacements (phase II) improved to 23.9% per replacement and 14.6% per pelviscopy.