Objective  To explore the relationship between clinical outcomes and embryo transfer number, and to provide some proposals for transfer selection of elderly patients.   Methods  Data from 80 fresh transfer cycles with cleavage-stage embryos were analyzed. Cycles were divided into several groups according to transfer number. Clinical pregnancy rate, implantation rate, multiple pregnancy rate and live birth rate were compared.   Results  To women no younger than 38 years old, when available embryo number was larger than two, similar clinical outcomes could be achieved by transferring two and three embryos. This trend was independent of the number of transferred 8-cell embryos.    Conclusion  The number of fresh cleavage-stage embryos transfer should not exceed two in elderly women.