Empty follicle syndrome: Successful pregnancy following dual trigger

Abstract

Empty follicle syndrome (EFS) is an uncommon, but the frustrating complication of assisted reproductive technology with failure to obtain oocytes after an adequate ovarian response to stimulation. Most of the reported cases of EFS are drug-related problems which are actually avoidable and do not represent any potential pathology and that the risk of genuine EFS (GEFS) is much smaller than was once thought. Our case is thefirst report of a pregnancy obtained after management of GEFS with dual trigger in a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist cycle. In this report, we present a patient who underwent two oocyte retrievals, in which no oocytes were obtained. In the third in-vitrofertilization cycle, a dual trigger with the combination of GnRH agonist and human chorionic gonadotropin yielded 11 oocytes, which led to the transfer of 2 blastocysts resulting in a live birth. Changing the treatment protocol with dual trigger brought about a successful outcome.

Keywords

• Dual trigger
• empty follicle syndrome
• genuine empty follicle syndrome
• gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist