Abstract
BACKGROUND: Different stages of assisted reproductive technologies are susceptible to contamination by various microorganisms. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between microbial contamination of embryo transfer catheters and the pregnancy outcome after embryo transfer. METHODS: This cohort study was conducted on 60 patients candied for in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer cycles from 2021 to 2022. All embryos were transferred using a sterile syringe. The catheter contamination was checked by the microbial culture method, and in the case of microbial culture that were negative, polymerase chain reaction was done to confirm the result. The data analyzed using STATA 17 to determine the impact of catheter contamination on the clinical pregnancy rate. RESULTS: The average age of peoples whose microbial culture was positive was lower than that of people whose microbial culture was negative (P<0.05). Also the results showed that people who live in villages have more positive microbial cultures than people who live in cities (P<0.05). Also there is no difference between the number of successful implantations and the pregnancy outcome between people whose microbial culture results were positive or negative. CONCLUSION: The results of the current study showed that the contamination of the embryo transfer catheter with microorganisms under our investigation did not affect the pregnancy outcome.