RBMO Insights Issue 8: December 2022

Welcome to December’s issue of RBMO Insights. The end of the year draws near and to mark the conclusion of 2022 we wanted to devote this issue to the biggest papers of the year. Many thanks to all our readers here on LinkedIn for your responses to this newsletter, we are delighted with how well it has been received since we launched it. We invite you to subscribe to our email mailing list should you wish, to receive Insights, Digest and nesof special events directly to your inbox.

In this newsletter we have the winner and two runners up of the Robert G. Edwards Prize for best publication in 2021. Following that are a collection of the papers from 2022 which have received the most citations and most prolific alternative metrics, through social media discussion and bibliographic captures.

Before we get to championing our authors, we would also like to take this opportunity to recognize all our behind-the-scenes team at the journal. At the end of November we gathered our Editors, editorial staff and production team together, along with our Elsevier publishing team for a hugely productive, informative and exciting strategy meeting at Elsevier HQ in Amsterdam.?It was a fantastic chance for several of us to meet in person for the first time, and for all of us to exchange ideas and plans for even greater developments to RBMO over the coming years.

The RBMO cast, from left to right in this photograph taken by Anthony Newman: Shalimar Shaheed, Giuseppe Benagiano, Fernanda Ogochi, Duncan Nicholas, Mina Alikani, Catherine Field, Maria Murphy, Kinga Rietveld, Juan Garcia-Velasco, Nick Macklon, Laura Rienzi, Caroline Blackwell, Jacques Cohen, Richard Anderson, Kamal Ahuja.

And now to the successes of our authors!

Congratulations to the winners of our annual Robert G. Edwards Prize Paper Award. Selected by our Editors and Section Editors, the prize is designed to recognize excellence in our field of study. One winner and two runner up prizes are awarded to papers published in RBMO each calendar year

WINNER: Drug-free in-vitro activation of follicles for infertility treatment in poor ovarian response patients with decreased ovarian reserve

Kazuhiro Kawamura , Bunpei Ishizuka, Aaron Hsueh

RUNNER UP: ‘There is only one thing that is truly important in an IVF laboratory: everything’ Cairo Consensus Guidelines on IVF Culture Conditions Cairo Consensus Group

RUNNER UP: Organoids can be established reliably from cryopreserved biopsy catheter-derived endometrial tissue of infertile women Bich Ngoc Bui, Matteo Boretto , Hiroto Kobayashi, Marliek van Hoesel , Gaby Steba , Nienke van Hoogenhuijze , Frank Dr. F.J.M. Broekmans , Hugo Vankelecom , Helen Torrance

This selection of articles are the highest cited, and most talked about articles published online this year in RBMO. Congratulations to the authors and their work for being so immediately well received and informative to the field.

Does mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine detrimentally affect male fertility, as reflected by semen analysis? Dror Lifshitz et al.

Semen parameters following COVID-19 vaccination were predominantly within the normal reference ranges as set by the WHO and do not reflect any causative detrimental effect from COVID-19 vaccination. The results strengthen the notion that the Pfizer's severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine is safe and should be recommended to men wishing to conceive.

The BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 vaccine does not impair sperm parameters Myriam Safrai et al.

Sperm parameters showed no significant changes after vaccination among men with a normal and abnormal semen analysis. Therefore, the BNT162b2 vaccine does not seem to affect sperm parameters. The preliminary results are reassuring for the entire global population, currently undergoing intense vaccination campaigns against COVID-19.

PGDIS position statement on the transfer of mosaic embryos 2021 Don Leigh et al.

Chromosome testing strategies, such as preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A), improve initial IVF outcomes by avoiding unwitting transfer of aneuploid embryos in morphology-based selection practices. In this Position Statement, we provide guidance to laboratories, clinics, clinicians and counsellors to assist in discussions on the utility and transfer of mosaic embryos.

Co-treatment with letrozole during ovarian stimulation for IVF/ICSI: a systematic review and meta-analysis Nathalie Bülow et al.

Co-treatment with letrozole during ovarian stimulation for IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection may benefit poor responders by increasing live birth rate. Currently, evidence is insufficient to support a recommendation of co-treatment with letrozole in normal or high responders, and further good-quality studies are required.

Uterine fibroid vascularization: from morphological evidence to clinical implications Pasquapina Ciarmela et al.

Microscopic and macroscopic vascular aspects of uterine fibroids need further investigation to understand the pathogenesis of the disease and to develop new treatments. Vascularization is important for understanding clinical manifestations, for predicting the effectiveness of non-surgical treatments and to enable differential diagnosis to be made with benign conditions or malignancy.

Maternal lifestyle and nutritional habits are associated with oocyte quality and ICSI clinical outcomes Amanda Setti et al.

Negative associations were found between poor maternal habits and oocyte quality and the outcomes of ICSI. Women desiring pregnancy should be aware of periconception preventative approaches by consulting with specialized healthcare and nutritional professionals to adjust diet and lifestyle before ICSI treatment.

Treatment of symptomatic uterine adenomyosis with linzagolix, an oral gonadotrophin-releasing hormone antagonist: a pilot study Jacques Donnez et al.

Eight women (aged 37–45 years) with adenomyosis confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were enrolled in a single-centre, open-label pilot study. A once-daily regimen of 200 mg linzagolix for 12 weeks and then 100 mg for another 12 weeks decreased adenomyotic uterine volume and improved associated symptoms.

That brings us to the end of another Insights Newsletter, and the last of 2022. We hope you have been enjoying this new initiative. Our thanks to all our readers and subscribers over these first eight issues. We look forward to next year where we will be continuing to develop this newsletter with even more news, updates and details from across our reproductive biomedicine community.

If you have any thoughts or ideas you’d like to share with us about the newsletter, please do drop us an email.

We wish you all the best for 2023 and the coming year.

RBMO Editorial Team