The Pregnancy Outcome of Singletons in IVF/ ICSI Cycles: A Cross-Sectional Study

The aim of this study was to compare prenatal outcome of intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) pregnancies with pregnancies obtained through in vitro fertilization (IVF). Retrospectively 532 pregnancies of ART cycles were assessed during 1999-2000. The main outcome measured including abortions, ectopic pregnancies, prematurity, low birth weight, cesarean section, prenatal mortality and malformation compared between IVF and ICSI groups The mean age was similar in both IVF and ICSI groups, as well as treatment protocols, and the number of transferred embryos. There were significant differences in duration of infertility, and times of ART cycles between groups (p<0.05). The total spontaneous abortion rate (19.09% in IVF and 16.42% in ICSI) showed no significant difference between groups. In addition, we could not find significantly differences about the first and second trimester abortion between two groups. ICSI patients experienced similar ectopic pregnancy rate (1.2%) to IVF (0.9%).The rate of cesarean section was 42.5% in ART cycles. ICSI group showed a significant difference with IVF in cesarean section rate (46.9% VS. 35.8%) (p=0.043). The rate of low birth weights and preterm labor at birth demonstrated similarity between ICSI and IVF groups (5.1% versus 6.4% and 5.4% versus 5.5%, respectively). In ICSI, seven congenital anomalies were detected. The rate of congenital anomalies was 2.08% in ICSI and 0.9% in IVF (p>0.05). Prenatal mortality was also similar between groups. In conclusion, perinatal outcome after ICSI showed similarity in the number of pathologies in comparison with IVF.