Prospective longitudinal cohort study on cumulative 5-year delivery and adoption rates among 1338 couples initiating infertility treatment.
BACKGROUND
The objective was to assess crude 5-year delivery rates after assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment, intrauterine inseminations (IUI), spontaneous conceptions (SC) and adoptions in a large infertile cohort.


METHODS
A prospective longitudinal survey comprised 1338 infertile couples starting public infertility programmes offering IUIs and three free ART cycles during 2000-2001. The cohort was cross-linked with the National Medical Birth Register to obtain delivery rates for all 1338 couples. More detailed data were available from 817 women responding to a 5-year follow-up questionnaire (response rate 74.7%). Fifty-seven percent (466/817) of the couples had received treatment prior to inclusion in the study with an average of 4.1+/-2.8 infertility treatments before referral.


RESULTS
Of the 1338 couples, 69.4% had at least one delivery within 5-years of follow-up. For women <35 years 74.9% had delivered compared with 52.2% of those aged > or =35 years. The mean number of children was 1.6, and 52.1% had more than one child. Of the 817 women who provided questionnaire data, 18.2% (149/817) delivered after SC, two-thirds of these after a previous ART delivery. Adoption of a child occurred for 5.9% (48/817) of the women. Positive prognostic factors for delivery were male infertility, female age <35 years, <3 years of infertility and less than three previous treatment cycles.


CONCLUSIONS
A crude delivery rate of 69.4% in the total population 5 years after referral to tertiary hospital centres with 6.6% deliveries after SC in the subpopulation responding to the questionnaire indicates a high efficacy of modern infertility treatments.
Pinborg
A
A
Fertility Clinic, The Juliane Marie Center, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshopitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. pinborg@nru.dk
Hougaard
C O
CO
Nyboe Andersen
A
A
Molbo
D
D
Schmidt
L
L
D000300:Adoption; D000328:Adult; D001723:Birth Rate; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007246:Infertility / Q000628:therapy*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires