Application of Two Different Synthetic Sequential Media for the Human IVF-Embryo Transfer (IVF-ET) Program

Quality-controlled commercial media have been used in many in-vitro fertilization (IVF) laboratories. However, commercial media are costly and difficult to compare directly because their exact compositions are not clearly indicated. Although commercially available media have commonly been used in most IVF programs worldwide, there are several advantages to the use of in-house synthetic sequential media at IVF laboratories. First, the results of quality control should be reliable due to a stringent protocol setting-up. Second, any direct supplementations or deletions of specific components are feasible to obtain good quality embryos and high pregnancy rates since those components can be defined. Finally, dependence on commercially available media diminishes so that the laboratory can more easily accommodate unexpected situations or problems, such as a sudden increase in IVF patients. Therefore, the present study was conducted to compare the efficacy of in-house MRC media in the human IVF-embryo transfer (ET) program to that of commercially available media.