Cost-effectiveness of ‘immediate IVF’ versus ‘delayed IVF’: a prospective study

Abstract

Supported by Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMW, grant 945-12-013). ZonMW had no role in designing the study, data collection, analysis and interpretation of data or writing of the report. Competing interests: none.

Is early initiation of infertility treatment justified in women over the age of 35 years?

“…For instance, Van Eekelen et al (2018) recently showed that in 38 years' old women seeking pregnancy for one year and without significant obstacles to conception, the chances of natural pregnancies over the following year is 25%. Moreover, Eijkemans et al (2017) failed to observe any detrimental effect on the overall chances of pregnancy when comparing women with immediate access to IVF-ICSI to those with a delayed access. Importantly, this observation was not influenced by women's age.…”

Making IVF more effective through the evolution of prediction models: is prognosis the missing piece of the puzzle?

“…Regarding the goodness of fit, unlike the other studies, Ferlitsch and colleagues (2004) did not calculate the AUC but implemented the Hosmer-Lemeshow test reporting that it did not significantly refute the goodness of fit of the model. The herein described works of Eijkemans in (2005Eijkemans in ( , 2017 do not seem to offer any quantitative data in reference to the potential predictive performance of the employed prognostic models. This is probably attributed to the fact that this study focused principally on CE regarding the timing and planning on embarking in an IVF treatment cycle in patients with specific clinical profiles (Table 1).…”

“…The most influential factors were the socioeconomic status of couples, the female age, the duration and cause of infertility. In brief, CE was higher in the first situation for couples with idiopathic infertility compared to those suffering from endometriosis while it was further negatively affected by age and duration of infertility (Eijkemans et al 2017).…”

“…Predicting cost-effectiveness of IVF treatment Interestingly, prediction models have been evaluated to investigate cost-effectiveness (CE) of IVF treatment. Studies analyze the perspective of timing of IVF (Eijkemans et al 2017), approach of ovulation induction (Eijkemans et al 2005) as well as success rates relative to waiting lists (Eijkemans et al 2008). An assessment of the CE between a conventional treatment including clomiphene citrate (CC) followed by exogenous FSH and IVF and various combinations of CC, FSH and IVF for normogonadotrophic anovulatory infertile couples was held.…”

Predicting live birth for poor ovarian responders: the PROsPeR concept

“…Assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment can have a significant emotional effect on patients, making appropriate counselling of patients an essential aspect of infertility care (Verhaak et al, 2010; American Society for Reproductive Medicine, 2016;Eijkemans et al, 2017). This includes the management of expectations before treatment is initiated, in particular ensuring that patients are aware of their chances of success.…”