Linda Wu

By Linda Wu, Jinzhou Qin, Dikai Zhang, Minqi Zhang, Suzhen Lu, Jennifer Howell, Timothy J. Gelety and Bin Wu

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) has been widely used for infertility treatment, but many people have concern about their baby’s health. The objective of this chapter is to provide some detailed data about the effect of ART on human birth babies by analyzing the data from in vitro fertilization (IVF) centers in two countries. All recent records related to a baby’s birth including mother’s age, gestational days, baby’s sex, and birth weight data were collected and analyzed according to fresh or frozen embryo transfer procedure. Normal delivery data without ART were used as control. The result showed that ART patient age is significantly older than non-IVF women; the gestation of fresh and frozen embryo transfer is the same as normal spontaneous conception gestation days, but women pregnant with multiple gestations have shorter gestational period and early birth rate as well as low birth weight; and there is no significant difference in the baby’s weight between ART singleton babies and normal conception babies, but male babies weight is more than female babies, and multiple gestation’s birth weights are significantly lower than singletons, while frozen embryo transfer babies have significantly heavier birth weight than fresh embryo transfer. Also, the frozen embryo transfer technique may significantly decrease premature birth rate. Thus, frozen embryo transfer may be recommended as a health strategy in ART.

Part of the book: Embryology

By Linda Wu and Bin Wu

Previous research and clinical reports have discovered that body weight significantly affects a patient’s fertility status. Underweight, overweight, or obese women may experience reduced fertility. Currently, assisted reproductive technology (ART) is used as treatment for infertile couples to conceive a child. However, whether abnormal body mass indexes (BMIs) affect infertile oocyte production is not clear. The objective of this study is to determine the association between BMI and retrieved oocyte numbers. A total of 136 IVF patient data in 2016 was reported from Reproductive Health Center. The relationship between patient’s BMI and retrieved oocyte numbers has been analyzed and their correlation coefficients between patients’ age, oocyte numbers, and BMI have been calculated. The results further proved that BMI affects collecting oocyte numbers and oocyte maturation rate. Overweight patients had fewer oocytes retrieved than that of normal weight patients. Likewise, obese patients had even fewer oocytes retrieved than that of both normal-weight and overweight patients. Underweight BMIs seem to have no effect on the number of oocytes collected; however, the oocyte quality and embryo production needs to be further studied. Results from this study may be used by IVF physicians and practitioners when consulting patients for IVF treatments.

Part of the book: Embryology Update