Comparison of pregnancy outcomes between IVF-ET pregnancies and spontaneous pregnancies in women of advanced maternal age

Abstract

Aim

To explore the impact of IVF on pregnancy complications and birth outcomes in women of advanced maternal age.

Methods

In this retrospective study, 3325 women were divided into the ART pregnancy group (n = 241) and the natural pregnancy group (n = 3086). The differences in maternal general conditions, pregnancy complications and birth outcomes were compared between the two groups.

Results

The ART group had higher rates of primiparity (78.4% vs 20.4%), cesarean section (90.5% vs 76.2%) and twin births (28.6% vs 2.1%). The risk of gestational hypertension (5.8% vs 2.9%), preeclampsia (5.0% vs 2.3%) and preterm birth [28 ∼ 31 + 6 weeks (2.9% vs 1.1%), 32 ∼ 33 + 6 weeks (5.0% vs 1.4%), 34 ∼ 36 + 6 weeks (15.8% vs 9.4%)] was significantly higher in the ART group than in the natural pregnancy group. Neonates in the ART group had lower birth weights (2882.61 ± 657.70 vs 3223.05 ± 534.28). However, in the singleton-only comparison, only gestational hypertension still showed a statistically significant difference.

Conclusions

For women of advanced maternal age, IVF-ET pregnancies may result in higher rates of pregnancy complications and adverse birth outcomes, but this is likely to be due to increased rates of multiple pregnancies.

Keywords:

• Advanced maternal age
• assisted reproductive technology
• pregnancy outcomes
• IVF-ET
• pregnancy complications

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81501335), the General Program of Chongqing Natural Science Foundation (CSTB2022NSCQ-MSX0086) and the Joint Program of the Chongqing Science and Technology Bureau and the Chongqing Health Commission (No. 2021MSXM141).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).