ABSTRACT
RESEARCH QUESTION: Are the pregnancy outcomes (clinical, biochemical and ectopic pregnancies) of women with a history of vaginal birth and women with a history of caesarean section who underwent single euploid embryo transfer at Fakih IVF Fertility Centre comparable? DESIGN: This retrospective cross-sectional chart review with multi-variate analysis, including 1157 women, compared pregnancy outcomes between women with a history of caesarean section and women with a history of vaginal birth who underwent in-vitro fertilization (IVF) at Fakih IVF Fertility Centre. All women who underwent single euploid frozen embryo transfer were included. Fresh and multiple embryo transfers were excluded. The primary outcome was clinical pregnancy, and the secondary outcomes were biochemical and ectopic pregnancies. RESULTS: Regarding pregnancy outcomes, the caesarean section group had fewer clinical pregnancies than the vaginal birth group [299 (61.1 %) vs 417 (67.3 %); p = 0.0346]. The rate of ectopic pregnancy did not differ significantly between the two groups (p = 0.4320). Similarly, there was no significant difference between the two groups regarding biochemical pregnancy [caesarean section group 22 (4.3 %) vs vaginal birth group 26 (4.0 %); p = 0.8122]. CONCLUSION: This study showed a decreased likelihood of clinical pregnancy in women with a history of caesarean section. No significant differences in biochemical or ectopic pregnancies were observed between the groups. These findings have practical clinical implications for counselling patients on the impact of prior caesarean sections in assisted reproduction.