Introduction: choosing the main outcome of an infertility trial is harder than you think.
Clinical trials in infertility choose from a variety of outcomes including change in some surrogate marker of gamete quality to healthy live birth. Incomplete reporting of outcomes makes it difficult to compare studies and to determine the clinical impact of infertility treatments. In this Views and Reviews, we explore the merits of collecting various outcomes of interest in infertility trials from the vantage point of infertility specialists, an obstetrician, and a pediatrician. These articles support more complete reporting of maternal, paternal, fetal, and infant outcomes from infertility trials to improve patient care and ultimately public health.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, First Affiliated Hospital, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: rsl1@psu.edu.
Richard S
RS
Legro
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, First Affiliated Hospital, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, People's Republic of China.
Xiaoke
X
Wu
D002755:Choice Behavior; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007246:Infertility / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D010819:Physician's Role; D011247:Pregnancy; D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted / Q000639:trends; D016896:Treatment Outcome