Received August 30, 2002
Accepted September 12, 2002

Objective: Endometriosis is associated with infertility even in patients without a c1ear anatomic abnormality. Several papers describe that embryo quality is affected in endometriotic patients submitted to IVF. The aim of the present study is to investigate embryo quality in those patients with endometriosis submitted to IVF for their infertility treatment. Methods: We studied retrospectively 59 infertile patients submitted to IVF during the period of September 200 I and September 2002. The patients were divided into two groups: group I (n=17) was composed by patients with infertility and endometriosis and, group II (n=42) by patients with tubal occlusion (without endometriosis). Results: The differences were not significant in terms of number of retrieved oocytes (p=0.209), fertilization rate (p=0.198), transferred embryos (p=0.274) and embryo score (p=0.923) between the studied groups. Pregnancy rates were also similar between the groups (12% for group I and 7% for group II). Conclusion: Infertile patients with endometriosis submitted to IVF do not have an altered embryo score (quality) if compared to infertile patients with tubal occlusion. Embryo score consider only some morphologic embryo characteristics and, consequently, have an intrinsic limitation for an accurate diagnosis of embryo quality.