Rapid Increase Seen in Assisted Reproduction
For further information, contact Melissa Maimann at Essential Birth Consulting.
The number of assisted reproduction cycles performed worldwide jumped 25.6% from 2000 to 2002, according to an international report.
… Between 219,000 and 246,000 babies were born through assisted reproductive technology (ART) in 2002 — an estimated 12% increase over the same two-year period …
Frozen embryo transfers increased 47% between 2000 and 2002, twice as fast as the increase in egg aspiration cycles.
… The researchers noted that these increases reflected growth in the number of countries and centers reporting, as well as true growth in assisted reproduction activity.
… Worldwide, the 601,243 initiated cycles resulted in a delivery rate of 22.4% per aspiration for conventional in vitro fertilization, 21.2% per intracytoplasmic sperm injection, and 15.3% per frozen embryo transfer.
Overall, frozen embryo transfers represented 21.7% of the aspirations, up from 14.4% in 2000.
There was substantial variation in overall assisted reproductive technology by nation, ranging from a low of two cycles per 1 million inhabitants in Ecuador to 3,688 per million in Israel.
Overall, the number of transferred embryos dropped, with particularly low numbers in Europe and Australia.
… The percentage of transfers with four or more embryos decreased from 15.4% to 13.7% in fresh cycles.
The proportion of single embryo, fresh transfers increased from 10.5% to 12.4%.
The proportions of twin pregnancies fell from 26.5% to 25.7%.
The proportion of triplet pregnancies decreased from 2.9% to 2.5%.
There was similar reduction in multiple pregnancies for frozen embryo transfers.… In the report, multiple pregnancies were associated with a higher rate of premature birth … For example, 94.2% of triplets were born prematurely, compared to 13.5% for singletons. Likewise, the perinatal mortality rate was 71.2 per 1,000 babies among triplets, compared to 10.7 among singletons.
Dr. de Mouzon’s group also reported a notable increase in intracytoplasmic sperm injection, which accounted for 56.6% of fertilization procedures in 2002 compared with 47.6% in 2000. The rates were particularly high in Latin America (75.9%) and the Middle East (92.4%).
“Since there is no reason to believe that there is such an increase in male infertility, the reasons behind this trend are difficult to know, since [it] has not been demonstrated to improve results for non-male infertility treatment,” …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
