Flushing of the Follicles in Ovum Pick-Up Procedures Impacts the Chance for Pregnancy, But Not Birth Rates in Low Ovarian Reserve Patients

Objective: This study aims to compare the pregnancy and live birth rates between the oocytes retrieved without follicular flushing and those retrieved by follicular flushing in the oocyte pick-up procedure performed in women with diminished ovarian reserve.Materials and Methods:The study was conducted among patients diagnosed with diminished ovarian reserve according to Bologna criteria who applied to the clinic for IVF between 2017-2020.A total of 358 infertile women with follicles three and below on the hCG day were included, and each follicle was aspirated once in the OPU procedure, and if an egg was retrieved, the physician moved to the next follicle.If the egg could not be retrieved, the oocyte was tried to be retrieved by flushing the follicle a maximum of three times.The number of oocytes retrieved, clinical pregnancy, and live birth rates were compared.Results: The mean number of MII oocytes, rates of live births and the miscarriage rates between the two groups did not show any statistical difference.Pregnancy rates were higher in no follicular flushing group.Conclusion: Flushing of the follicles did not give the same pregnancy result as the oocytes aspirated without flushing, but we should not forget that if we did not do flushing after once we aspirated the follicle, we would not be able to obtain any pregnancy at all in these patients