Obstetric management after infertility treatment

Objective: King Fahd University Hospital, Al-Khobar is a tertiary care center without the facility for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer, but ovulation induction (OI) is done routinely. The objective of this analysis was to study the obstetric outcome of patients who conceived after IVF and OI. Design: Retrospective analysis. Patients and Methods: One hundred and twenty patients were analysed within the study period of January 1996 and December 2006. Patients were divided into two groups viz; those who became pregnant after IVF and embryo transfer and those who conceived after OI. The obstetric outcome measures analysed include: antenatal and intrapartum complications, the number of babies delivered and the mode of delivery. The data was entered into the database and analysed using SPSS Inc. version 14. Results: The average age was 37.31 ± 4.1 years (range 21–43 years), primary infertility was seen in 74 women and secondary infertility in 46 patients. In 73 (60.8%) of the women, pregnancy occurred after OI and the rest of the patients underwent IVF at other centers. Sixty-nine (57.5%) of women had no previous pregnancy. Antenatal complications were similar in both groups but intrapartum complications were significantly higher in IVF group, P = 0.05. Multiple pregnancies were significantly higher in the IVF group (P = 0.001). Normal vaginal deliveries (NVD) were common in the OI group, and cesarean sections (CS) was significantly higher in IVF group (P = 0.001). Conclusion: This study shows that in pregnancy after IVF and embryo transfer, intrapartum complications were more and CS was the common mode of delivery when compared with those that had only OI.