Potential Impact of Microbiome on Assisted Reproductive Treatment

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Assisted Reproduction Techniques and Endometrial and Vaginal Microbiome, A Cohort Study (ARTEMiS)

• IRAS ID

  200434

• Contact name

  Shirin Khanjani

• Contact email

  S.khanjani@imperial.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Imperial College London

• Duration of Study in the UK

  2 years, 0 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  1 in 7 couples experience difficulty in conceiving. Many of them will require in vitro fertilization (IVF). IVF involves hormone injections to stimulate a woman’s ovaries to produce eggs which are removed by a minor operation. There are two main established protocols to retrieve eggs; 1) Long luteal phase protocol which supresses the ovaries for two weeks before initiation of stimulation and 2) the antagonist protocol which starts the treatment with stimulation followed by suppression from approximately day 5.
  The harvested eggs are mixed with sperm to create embryos in the laboratory. These embryos are replaced in the womb a few days after they are created (fresh embryo transfer). Any remaining embryos are frozen such that they can be thawed and transferred at a later date (thawed frozen embryo transfer) for future use.

  Many organisms inhabit the human body; they are referred to as microbiome. In the recent years there has been a global effort to characterise the relevance and importance of microbiome to health and disease. Preliminary studies have indicated a possible role for the microbiomes in the aetiology of infertility and have indicated that the microbiome that resides in the vagina (vaginal microbiome) and the lining of the womb (endometrial microbiome) can have an impact on the success rates of assisted reproductive techniques.
  we aim to study the differences in the population of vaginal and endometrial microbiome at time points across the different treatments cycles for fresh embryo transfers. We will also compare fresh with frozen cycles at similar time points. We will also obtain a vaginal swab at 6-8 weeks of pregnancy. We will take a blood sample to measure Estradiol (E2) and Progesterone (P4) at each time point. We will follow up on our patients and will document the outcome of their pregnancy.

• REC name

  London - Brent Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  16/LO/1286

• Date of REC Opinion

  13 Sep 2016

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion