Fertility treatment among women with asthma: a case-control study of 3689 women with live births.

Asthma has been linked with prolonged time to pregnancy. Our aim was to explore a possible association between asthma and need for fertility treatment among women with live births.All women enrolled in the Management of Asthma during Pregnancy (MAP) programme at Hvidovre Hospital, Denmark were each matched with the next three consecutive women giving birth at Hvidovre Hospital. Information from the Danish National Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) registry was cross-linked with the Danish Medical Birth registry to identify live births. The primary outcome of interest was births following fertility treatment.Our sample comprised pregnancies from asthmatic mothers (n=932, described as "cases") and non-asthmatic mothers (n=2757, described as "controls"), with 12% (n=114) and 8% (n=212), respectively, having had fertility treatment (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.32-2.13; p<0.001). This association remained statistically significant after adjusting for confounders, including body mass index (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.00-1.70; p=0.047). In women ≥35 years, 25% of cases (n=63) and 13% of controls (n=82) received fertility treatment (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.47-3.07; p<0.001), which also remained statistically significant after adjusting for confounders (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.11-2.46; p=0.013).A higher proportion of the births from asthmatic mothers involved fertility treatment compared to non-asthmatic mothers, not least among women aged ≥35 years.

Perinatal outcomes in 375 children born after oocyte donation: a Danish national cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To describe perinatal outcomes in children born after oocyte donation (OD) compared with in vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), and spontaneous conception (SC). DESIGN: National cohort study. SETTING: Fertility clinics. PATIENT(S): Three hundred seventy-five children born after OD during the period 1995-2010. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Mean birth weight, mean gestational age, risks of low birth weight (LBW), preterm birth (PTB), congenital malformations, cesarean delivery, preeclampsia, and admittance to neonatal intensive care unit. RESULT(S): We found an increased risk of PTB in OD pregnancies. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of PTB in OD singletons was 1.8 (95% CI, 1.2-2.69), 2.5 (95% CI, 1.7-3.6), and 3.4 (95% CI, 2.3-4.9) compared with IVF, ICSI, and SC, respectively. The risk of LBW was also increased. The AOR of LBW was 1.4 (95% CI, 0.9-2.2), 1.8 (95% CI, 1.2-2.8), and 2.6 (95% CI, 1.7-4.0) compared with IVF, ICSI, and SC. The risk of preeclampsia was increased in OD pregnancies with an AOR of 2.9 (95% CI, 1.8-4.6), 2.8 (95% CI, 1.7-4.5), and 3.1 (95% CI, 1.9-4.9) compared with IVF, ICSI, and SC. After additional adjustment for preeclampsia, perinatal outcome improved. Among the twins, the difference between the groups was less pronounced. CONCLUSION(S): Pregnancies after OD have a poorer perinatal outcome than those after standard IVF and ICSI mainly because of the high prevalence of preeclampsia.