1. Médecine
  2. Human Reproduction

COVID 19 and ART

COVID19 and ART

COVART - completed

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many patients in all medical fields. In the Belgian fertility clinic, all activities including treatments and evaluations were interrupted during the first wave, and restarted in June 2020, while several uncertainties remain.
Among them, questions regarding the risk of semen, vaginal and follicular fluids contamination in suspected or positive patients have to be addressed. In the COVART study, we aim to investigate the impact COVID-19 on ART treatments and the presence of the virus mRNA in reproductive materials. The study was conducted during the peak of the second wave when Belgium was in "red zone".
In suspect / positive patients for whom treatment cannot be canceled, residual material (semen and follicular fluid, vaginal swabs, medium for preparation of residual ovarian and / or medullary tissue) were collected for quantitative RT-PCR analysis and infectivity tests in all suspected cases or RT-PCR positive patients. The follicular fluids were collected on the day of the oocyte collection. Vaginal swabs were collected prior to vaginal disinfection at the time of egg retrieval. Residual semen swabs were collected after preparation. A sample of residual medium used for the preparation of the ovarian tissue as well as a sample of residual marrow will be taken at the time of cryopreservation of the ovarian tissue.
Almost 400 samples were analyzed. Amongst them, 20 samples were obtained from patients with a positive questionnaire but negative nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 test and 20 others were from patients with a positive nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 test. The remaining samples were collected from patients with a negative or unknown nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 test and/or a negative or unknown triage questionnaire. Viral RNA for SARS-CoV-2 was undetectable in all of the samples.

Publication : Risk of contamination of semen, vaginal secretions, follicular fluid and ovarian medulla with SARS-CoV-2 in patients undergoing ART