Identification of Ovarian Follicles for Infertility Treatment

Abstract

In recent years, the trend of people marrying later in life has been significantly increasing. In the US, 60% of married women in their 40s reportedly have infertility. In half of these cases, a female factor is the cause. As a consequence, infertility treatments are widely performed. One such treatment is in-vitro fertilization. This technique directly removes a follicle from the ovary and ovum is fertilized it with sperm under a microscope by embryologist. Ovulation inducers can stimulate the growth of 10 to 15 follicles. However, 20% to 30% usually contain vacuoles and do not support ovary growth. In some cases, ova that are as much as 90% vacuolated do support ovary growth[1]. It thus cannot be determined whether a follicle has an ovum or is vacuolated unless the follicle is examined under a microscope. Consequently, it is useful to determine in advance whether a follicle has an ovum because follicle collection is painful for the woman. However, to date, a non-invasive method of identifying vacuolated ova does not exist. Therefore, we herein propose a method using ultrasound to determine whether a follicle has an ovum.