Open AccessPredictive factors of successful pregnancy after assisted reproductive technology in women aged 40 years and older
Author(s) -
Fujimoto Akihisa,
Fujiwara Toshihiro,
Oishi Hajime,
Hirata Tetsuya,
Yano Tetsu,
Taketani Yuji
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
reproductive medicine and biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.005
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1447-0578
pISSN - 1445-5781
DOI - 10.1007/s12522-009-0023-z
Subject(s) - reproductive medicine , medicine , pregnancy , assisted reproductive technology , obstetrics , gynecology , gerontology , biology , infertility , genetics
Purpose This study aimed to investigate the factors that predict successful pregnancy (live birth) in assisted reproductive technology (ART) for infertile women aged 40 and older. Methods Patients who underwent first ART treatments at the age of 40 and older at our institution were enrolled. Several factors which can be evaluated before the first treatments were retrospectively compared among those patients who did and did not achieve live birth. Results Nineteen of 119 patients delivered healthy babies. There was no significant difference of live‐birth rate among age groups of 40, 41 and 42. No women who underwent the first treatment at age 43 or older achieved live birth. In the successful group, significantly more women held FSH levels under 12 mIU/ml and had regular menstrual cycles (26–32 days) than unsuccessful women of the same age group. In addition, significantly fewer women in the successful group had prior ovarian surgery. Conclusions Our results show that low FSH levels, regular menstrual cycles and absence of prior ovarian surgery were related to high live‐birth rates and they are good prognostic factors in patients between 40 and 42 years of age. On the other hand, none of these parameters were correlated with success in women aged 43 and older.