Original articlePreterm delivery and low birth weight in singleton pregnancies conceived by women with and without a history of infertility
Section snippets
Materials and methods
A cohort of 51,318 women who underwent evaluation or treatment for infertility between 1965 and 1998 at 14 infertility practices in California (11 in northern California and three in southern California) was assembled for the purpose of conducting health outcomes studies. Eligible women were evaluated for infertility or received treatment between January 1, 1965, and January 1, 1998, and did not have a personal history of cancer.
For this study, the cohort was limited to 30,448 women who
Results
Of the 983 women in the infertile cohort, 542 (55%) conceived with cycle-based infertility treatment, and 441 (45%) conceived spontaneously without infertility treatment (i.e., they had not undergone any infertility treatment within two menstrual cycles or 60 days before the estimated day of conception). Of the women who conceived after infertility treatment, 77% conceived using medications to induce or augment ovulation, 41% used intrauterine insemination (IUI), 12% conceived with IVF without
Discussion
One of the most significant clinical sequelae of infertility treatment is the high frequency of multiple births and associated poor perinatal outcomes, including PTD and LBW 10, 11. While some studies have described a similar increased risk in singleton pregnancies after ART 9, 12, 13, others have not 14, 15.
By comparing perinatal outcomes between infertile women who conceived with and without a variety of infertility treatments with a comparison group of fertile women, we were able to look at
Acknowledgments
The authors thank our scientific advisors: Denise Bernstein, L.V.N., Lauri Black, M.S., Marcelle Cedars, M.D., Nancy Chamberlain, Lisa Croen, Ph.D., Kari Danzinger, M.S., Seth Feigenbaum, M.D., Donna Ferriero, M.D., Judith Grether, Ph.D., Rebecca Jackson, M.D., Ph.D., H. Preston Nelson, M.D., Paul Turek, M.D., Yvonne Wu, M.D.; the assistants with data collection: Sujana Bhattacharyya, Allison Boissevain, Sharyn Boissevain, Zulma Flamenco, Christine Flanders-Koenig, Jennifer Fraser, Maria
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Cited by (13)
Low birth weight: Is it related to assisted reproductive technology or underlying infertility?
2013, Fertility and SterilityStudy profile matCH (Mothers and their children’s health) profile: Offspring of the 1973–78 cohort of the Australian longitudinal study on women’s health
2018, Longitudinal and Life Course StudiesPerinatal and Childhood Outcomes Associated with Infertility
2017, Seminars in Reproductive MedicineHistory of infertility relates to increased risk of gestational diabetes mellitus: A meta-analysis
2017, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
L.C. received funding for travel to meetings from the European Society for Human Reproduction and Samuel Merritt University. A.A. has nothing to disclose. R.D.N. has nothing to disclose. M.S. has nothing to disclose. S.W. has nothing to disclose. M.S.C. has nothing to disclose.
Supported by National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant 1-RO1-CA69619 and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) grant 1-P01-HD-37074 (to M.S.C.).