Higher BMI is associated with an increased failure to achieve a clinical intrauterine gestation; this risk was overcome with the use of donor oocytes. Failure to achieve a live birth increases with higher BMI, significantly with the use of autologous oocytes (P< 0.0001), and to a greater extent among women <35 years of age (P< 0.0001).

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Objective To compare the risks for adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes by diagnoses with and without ART treatment to non-ART pregnancies in fertile women. Design Historical cohort Setting Massachusetts vital records linked to ART clinic data from SART CORS Patients Diagnoses included male factor (ART only), endometriosis, ovulation disorders, tubal (ART only) and reproductive inflammatory disorders (non-ART only). Pregnancies resulting in singleton and twin live births from 2004–08 were linked to hospital discharges in women who had ART treatment (N=3,689), women with no ART treatment in the current pregnancy (N=4,098) and non-ART pregnancies to fertile women (N= 297,987). Interventions None Main Outcome Measures Risks of gestational diabetes, prenatal hospitalizations, prematurity, low birth weight, and small-for-gestation were modeled using multivariate logistic regression with fertile deliveries as the reference group adjusted for maternal age, race/ethnicity, education, chronic hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and plurality (adjusted odds ratios, AORs, and 95% confidence intervals, CI). Results Risk of prenatal hospital admissions was increased for endometriosis (ART 1.97, 1.38–2.80; non-ART 3.34, 2.59–4.31), ovulation disorders (ART 2.31, 1.81–2.96; non-ART 2.56, 2.05–3.21), tubal (ART 1.51, 1.14–2.01), and reproductive inflammation (non-ART 2.79, 2.47–3.15). Gestational diabetes was increased for women with ovulation disorders (ART 2.17, 1.72–2.73; non-ART 1.94, 1.52–2.48). Preterm delivery (AORs 1.24–1.93) and low birthweight (AORs 1.27–1.60) were increased in all groups except endometriosis with ART. Conclusions The findings indicate substantial excess perinatal morbidities associated with underlying infertility-related diagnoses in both ART-treated and non-ART-treated women.

Objective To compare on a population basis the birth outcomes of women treated with Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), women with indicators of subfertility but without ART, and fertile women. Design Longitudinal cohort study Setting Massachusetts Participants 334,628 births and fetal deaths to Massachusetts mothers giving birth in a Massachusetts hospital between July 1, 2004-December 31, 2008, subdivided into three subgroups for comparison: ART 11,271, subfertile 6,609, and fertile 316,748. Intervention None Main Outcome Measures Four outcomes: preterm birth, low birthweight, small for gestational age and perinatal death, were modeled separately for singletons and twins using logistic regression with the primary comparison between ART births and those to the newly created population based subgroup of births to women with indicators of subfertility but no ART. Results Singletons: The risks for both preterm birth and low birthweight were higher for the ART group (AOR 1.23 and 1.26, respectively) compared to the subfertile group and risks in both the ART and subfertile groups were higher than those among fertile births. Twins: the risk of perinatal death was significantly lower among ART births than fertile (AOR 0.55) or subfertile (AOR 0.15) births. Conclusions The use of a population based comparison group of subfertile births without ART demonstrated significantly higher rates of preterm birth and low birthweight in ART singleton births, but these differences are smaller than differences between ART and fertile births. Further refinement of the measurement of subfertile births and examination of the independent risks of subfertile births is warranted.

BACKGROUND Live-birth rates after treatment with assisted reproductive technology have traditionally been reported on a per-cycle basis. For women receiving continued treatment, cumulative success rates are a more important measure. METHODS We linked data from cycles of assisted reproductive technology in the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology Clinic Outcome Reporting System database for the period from 2004 through 2009 to individual women in order to estimate cumulative live-birth rates. Conservative estimates assumed that women who did not return for treatment would not have a live birth; optimal estimates assumed that these women would have live-birth rates similar to those for women continuing treatment. RESULTS The data were from 246,740 women, with 471,208 cycles and 140,859 live births. Live-birth rates declined with increasing maternal age and increasing cycle number with autologous, but not donor, oocytes. By the third cycle, the conservative and optimal estimates of live-birth rates with autologous oocytes had declined from 63.3% and 74.6%, respectively, for women younger than 31 years of age to 18.6% and 27.8% for those 41 or 42 years of age and to 6.6% and 11.3% for those 43 years of age or older. When donor oocytes were used, the rates were higher than 60% and 80%, respectively, for all ages. Rates were higher with blastocyst embryos (day of transfer, 5 or 6) than with cleavage embryos (day of transfer, 2 or 3). At the third cycle, the conservative and optimal estimates of cumulative live-birth rates were, respectively, 42.7% and 65.3% for transfer of cleavage embryos and 52.4% and 80.7% for transfer of blastocyst embryos when fresh autologous oocytes were used. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that live-birth rates approaching natural fecundity can be achieved by means of assisted reproductive technology when there are favorable patient and embryo characteristics. Live-birth rates among older women are lower than those among younger women when autologous oocytes are used but are similar to the rates among young women when donor oocytes are used. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology.)