The impact of the woman's age on the success of standard and donor in vitro fertilization.
OBJECTIVE
To study the effect of the age of the woman who provides the oocytes or who receives the embryos on results of IVF-ET.


METHODS
Historical cohort study. Multivariate regression analysis was used to study the age effect continuously and after adjustment for confounding.


METHODS
Patients of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.


METHODS
Couples who underwent standard (n = 277) or donor IVF-ET (n = 294) between January 1991 and July 1995.


METHODS
One cycle of standard or donor IVF-ET.


METHODS
Successive IVF outcomes from number of oocytes to ongoing pregnancy and several measures of pregnancy loss.


RESULTS
The number of oocytes decreased with aging of the oocyte provider. More women who received oocytes from donors aged 20 to 23 years had at least one good embryo transferred than women who received oocytes from older donors. The age of the woman who received the embryos had no effect on IVF outcomes. In women > 40 years who underwent standard IVF, the probability of pregnancy decreased. No such relationships were observed for donor IVF, but all the oocyte donors were younger.


CONCLUSIONS
An age effect for ongoing pregnancy was only found in women > 40 years who underwent standard IVF independent of the lower number of oocytes and suggests decreasing oocyte quality.
Stolwijk
A M
AM
University of Nijmegen, Bosch Medicenter, Den Bosch, The Netherlands.
Zielhuis
G A
GA
Sauer
M V
MV
Hamilton
C J
CJ
Paulson
R J
RJ
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004624:Embryo Transfer; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D018587:Oocyte Donation; D009865:Oocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies