Diminished effect of maternal age on implantation after preimplantation genetic diagnosis with array comparative genomic hybridization

Objective To assess the relationship between maternal age, chromosome abnormality, implantation, and pregnancy loss. Design Multicenter retrospective study. Setting IVF centers in the United States. Patient(s) IVF patients undergoing chromosome screening. Intervention(s) Embryo biopsy on day 3 or day 5/6 with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) by array comparative genomic hybridization. Main Outcome Measure(s) Aneuploidy, implantation, pregnancy, and loss rates. Result(s) Aneuploidy rates increased with maternal age from 53% to 93% for day 3 biopsies and from 32% to 85% for blastocyst biopsies. Implantation rates for euploid embryos for ages 42 years old had implantation rates of 23.3% (day 3), 27.7% (day 5/6), and the pregnancy rate with day 3 biopsy was 9.3% and with day 5 biopsy 10.3%. Conclusion(s) Selective transfer of euploid embryos showed that implantation and pregnancy rates were not significantly different between reproductively younger and older patients up to age 42 years. Some patients who start an IVF cycle planning to have chromosome screening do not have euploid embryos available for transfer, a situation that increases with advancing maternal age. Mounting data suggests that the dramatic decline in IVF treatment success rates with female age is primarily caused by aneuploidy. © 2013 American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Published by Elsevier Inc