ABSTRACT
The presence of sERC is believed to indicate cytoplasmic damage and has been shown to be associated with decreased implantation rates and high miscarriage rates.1,2 The ALPHA and ESHRE Istanbul Consensus 2011 recommend that oocytes with sERC should not be inseminated as there is risk of a significantly abnormal outcome including, for example, certain imprinting disorders (e.g., Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome1). Cohorts of oocytes where some contain sERC can have overall normal fertilization rates and can produce morphologically normal embryos, but the clinical pregnancy rate is reduced, even if only sERC-negative embryos are replaced.
