Prospective Randomized Trial of Assisted Hatching of Cleavage Stage Embryos

Assisted hatching is a procedure in which a hole is made in the hard covering of a developing embryo to allow the embryo to hatch more easily from this shell. This procedure is sometimes used before transferring embryos to patients after in vitro fertilization (IVF) in an attempt to improve resulting pregnancy rates. Assisted hatching has been shown to improve outcomes among certain groups of patients, such as older patients or patients with a history of IVF treatment and embryo transfer without success. Whether this procedure could benefit the broader patient population remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate potential benefits of assisted hatching for good prognosis patients who would not typically be treated with assisted hatching under current standard protocols. Pregnancy rates were compared between good prognosis patients undergoing IVF with day-3 embryo transfer with or without assisted hatching of the transferred embryos.