Intercycle variabilities of basal antral follicle count and ovarian volume in subfertile women and their relationship to reproductive aging: A prospective study

Abstract

Intercycle variabilities of the antral follicle count and ovarian volume were clinically significant. More variation was observed in the antral follicle count of young infertile patients. Therefore, a low antral follicle count in young, infertile, but ovulatory women should be cautiously interpreted. This may not reflect a low ovarian reserve, and these women may have a high antral follicle count in the next cycle.

Role of antral follicle count in controlled ovarian hyperstimulation and intrauterine insemination cycles in patients with unexplained subfertility

“…Changes in the size of the growing follicle cohort responding to exogenous gonadotropins among different menstrual cycles can explain this variation. In a recent study, a significant cycle-to-cycle variation was shown in the AFC, particularly in young infertile women, in a subfertile population (26). Contrarily, our data demonstrated that cycle-to-cycle differences in AFC in repeated cycles of the same patients were not significant in subfertile patients (<40 y of age) and did not appear to influence the predictive capacity of AFC for pregnancy and live birth.…”

Establishing the intercycle variability of three-dimensional ultrasonographic predictors of ovarian reserve

“…The mean interval between the two assessments was 5.4 AE 1.2 months. There was no significant difference between the two cycles in the total AFC (16.06 AE 8.9 vs. 15 …”

“…Intercycle variability and intraobserver reliability were assessed by calculating limits of agreement, as described by Bland and Altman (19). To compare the cycle variability of different determinants of ovarian reserve, each of which has different scales and units, the ranges between the upper and lower limits of agreement were standardized by expressing them as multiples of the mean (MoM) (15). Multiples of the mean for each variable were calculated by dividing the range between the limits of agreement by its own mean.…”

“…Significant intercycle variability has been reported for basal FSH (14) and ovarian volume (15). Similarly, a high degree of variation in the number of antral follicles between cycles was demonstrated in both fertile (16) and subfertile populations (15).…”

Does the Modification of Starting Gonadotropin Dose During ICSI Cycle Have Any Significant Impact on Cycle Outcome?

“…Therefore, first cycle of IVF/ICSI treatment was proposed to be a surrogate ovarian response test (13). Although it has no clinical applicability due to the lack of data from prospective studies, it may be an alternative to overcome disadvantages of variability between ovarian reserve test results (14,15). Optimal gonadotropin starting dose is still a concern and has not been established (16).…”