Objective To explore the effect of assisted oocyte activation (AOA) on the developmental potential and the euploidy in elderly women with poor embryo outcomes in previous in vitro fertilization cycles. Methods A retrospective self-controlled study was conducted to analyze elderly women (aged ≥35 years) who underwent intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) combined with calcium ionophore A23187-AOA at the Reproductive Medicine Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University from January 2021 to December 2024, these cases were assigned to the AOA group (n=123), their embryonic and pregnancy outcomes from previous ICSI cycles served as the control group (n=123). The two-pronucleus (2PN) fertilization rate, high-quality embryo rate, blastocyst formation rate, high-quality blastocyst rate, embryonic euploidy rate, and clinical pregnancy rate of the two groups were compared and analyzed. Statistical analysis were performed using the t-test, χ2 test or Fisher exact probability method. Results In patients with a low rate of 2PN fertilization, the 2PN rate in the AOA group was significantly higher than that in the control group [77.27% (17/22) vs 18.18% (4/22), P<0.001]. In patients with a low rate of high-quality embryos, the rates of high-quality embryos, blastocyst formation, and high-quality blastocysts in the AOA group were all higher than those in the control group [59.46% (110/185) vs 15.38% (22/143), 52.87% (83/157) vs 28.95% (33/114), and 72.29% (60/83) vs 33.33% (11/33), respectively; χ2 values were 65.153, 15.434, and 15.091, respectively; all P<0.001]. In patients with a low rate of blastocyst formation, the blastocyst formation rate in the AOA group was also higher than that in the control group [56.33% (169/300) vs 26.71% (74/277), χ2 value was 51.826, P<0.001]. In the ICSI preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) cycles, the AOA group showed significantly higher rates of high quality embryos, blastocyst formation, and embryonic euploidy compared with the control group [71.95% (277/385) vs 61.09% (168/275), 59.48% (229/385) vs 35.64% (98/275), and 39.37% (87/221) vs 23.08%
(21/91), respectively; χ2 values were 8.609, 36.485, and 7.557, respectively; all P<0.05]. In frozen–thawed
embryo transfer cycles, the clinical pregnancy rate in the AOA group was significantly higher than that in the control group [72.34% (34/47) vs 16.67% (2/12), P<0.001]. Conclusions AOA may improve the embryonic developmental potential of elderly women, increase the number of high-quality embryos and available blastocysts, thereby improving the embryonic euploidy rate of the patient. It has a certain positive effect on improving pregnancy outcomes in elderly women.