According to various research studies, the use of Assisted Reproductive Techniques for infertility are on the rise.
Between 219,000 and 246,000 babies were born through assisted reproductive technology in 2002, which was an estimated 12% increase over the same two-year period.
Source: Jacques de Mouzon, M.D., of INSERM in Paris, and colleagues reported online in Human Reproduction.
Frozen embryo transfers increased 47% between 2000 and 2002, twice as fast as the increase in egg aspiration cycles.
Worldwide, the 601,243 initiated cycles resulted in a delivery rate of 22.4% per aspiration for conventional in vitro fertilization, 21.2% per intracytoplasmic sperm injection, and 15.3% per frozen embryo transfer.
Overall, frozen embryo transfers represented 21.7% of the aspirations, up from 14.4% in 2000.
There was substantial variation in overall assisted reproductive technology by nation, ranging from a low of two cycles per 1 million inhabitants in Ecuador to 3,688 per million in Israel.
Overall, the number of transferred embryos dropped, with particularly low numbers in Europe and Australia.
Among the other findings for the 2000-2002 period:
- The percentage of transfers with four or more embryos decreased from 15.4% to 13.7% in fresh cycles.
- The proportion of single embryo, fresh transfers increased from 10.5% to 12.4%.
- The proportions of twin pregnancies fell from 26.5% to 25.7%.
- The proportion of triplet pregnancies decreased from 2.9% to 2.5%.
- There was similar reduction in multiple pregnancies for frozen embryo transfers.
In the report, multiple pregnancies were associated with a higher rate of premature birth (before 37 weeks). For example, 94.2% of triplets were born prematurely, compared to 13.5% for singletons.
Likewise, the perinatal mortality rate was 71.2 per 1,000 babies among triplets, compared to 10.7 among singletons.
Source: International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technology.
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