Endometrial Injury and in Vitro Fertilization Outcomes

Infertility affects 1 in 7 couples worldwide. The most successful treatment is in vitro fertilization (IVF), a procedure where a woman's eggs are collected and fertilized with sperm to make embryos, which are then placed in the woman's uterus using a small catheter, a procedure called "embryo transfer." Unfortunately, pregnancy rates from IVF are less than 50%. Recently, several studies have shown dramatically improved pregnancy rates by grazing the innermost lining of the uterus (the endometrium) with a small flexible catheter weeks prior to embryo transfer. These studies were all performed outside the United States (U.S.) in women with multiple failed IVF attempts and did not investigate the mechanisms by which endometrial injury works. This study will be the first to evaluate the effect of endometrial injury on IVF success in all women undergoing IVF, including first IVF cycles, frozen embryo transfers, and donor eggs.