Consider Anti-Ovarian Antibody Testing for ART: a Parameter to Improve the Success Rate of Your Clinic!

There is a steady and continuing trend towards later childbearing in developed countries, to some extent in developing countries and at the same time several infertile couples seek for Assisted Reproduction Techniques (ART) to conceive. ART has been used in the United States since 1981 to help women become pregnant however; the decision to undergo this expensive and time-consuming treatment can be difficult. ART can also alleviate the burden of infertility on individuals and families. With a chance of helping women get pregnant through IVF; there also are numerous hurdles that come along the way for a successful IVF, such as female age, embryo quality, ovarian response, poor implantation, poor diet and lifestyle. Usually ignored but, a new addition to this list could be the detection of serum Anti-Ovarian Antibodies (AOA) which have been demonstrated to further reduce IVF success rates. This review highlights recent research findings supporting AOA testing in women enrolled for ART prior to initiating them into the IVF program. In doing so it could help these women at the time of counseling, to give them a better perspective of a chance on how to improve their reproductive outcome. This simple counseling which involving a blood work done for testing serum AOA would not only ensure effectiveness of IVF, but also save on the time invested by the treating clinician and the monetary investment done by the patients and thus aim towards restoring fertility.