More IVF babies are born after egg collection in the summer rather than in the autumn, according to scientists.
Researchers in Australia have found that transferring frozen then thawed embryos to women’s wombs from eggs collected in the summer resulted in a 30 per cent higher likelihood of babies born alive than if the eggs were retrieved in the autumn.
The researchers also found a 28 per cent increase in the chances of a live birth among women who had eggs collected during days that had the most sunshine compared with days with the least sunshine.
The scientists analysed outcomes from all frozen embryo transfers carried out at a single clinic in Perth over a period of eight years, from January 2013 to December 2021. During this time there were 3,659 frozen embryo transfers with embryos generated from 2,155 IVF cycles in 1,835 patients.
The researchers looked at birth outcomes according to season, temperatures, and the actual number of hours of bright sunshine – as opposed to calculating hours from sunrise to sunset. They created three groups for duration of sunshine on days when eggs were collected: low sunshine days (0 to 7.6 hours of sunshine), medium sunshine days (7.7 to 10.6 hours) and high sunshine days (10.7 to 13.3 hours).
Read more on https://inews.co.uk/news/health/ivf-more-likely-successful-egg-collection-summer-2457416