Characteristics of patients seeking fertility care in a low-income setting.

OBJECTIVE: Patients face challenges accessing fertility treatment due to barriers such as financial burdens, delayed referral to Reproductive Endocrinologists (REI), low medical literacy, language barriers and numerous other health disparities. Medicaid in New York offers coverage for office visits, blood tests, hysterosalpingograms (HSGs), and pelvic ultrasounds for infertility. The aim of this study is to delineate the characteristics of this underserved population and determine their ability to complete the initial fertility workup. METHODS: This was a retrospective study of all patients seeking fertility care at a single resident/fellow REI clinic in New York from September 2020 - January 2022. RESULTS: During the study period, 87 patients (avg age = 35.2y) sought care at the resident/fellow clinic over 126 appointments. The majority of patients had Medicaid insurance and most primary languages spoken included English (70.1%), Spanish (21.8%), and Bengali (3.4%). Documented Race was comprised of mostly Other (46%), African American (21.8%), Asian (17.2%), and White (11.5%). The majority of patients completed a lab workup (70-80%). Fewer patients underwent a scheduled HSG (59.8%) and patients' partners completed a semen analysis (SA) (27.6%). Overall, there was a significant difference in the ability to complete the initial infertility workup (lab tests vs. HSG vs. SA) across all groups regardless of age, insurance type, primary language spoken, race and ethnicity (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Completing the fertility workup, particularly the male partner workup and imaging studies, can present challenges for underserved patients with infertility. Understanding which patient characteristics and societal factors restrict access to fertility care requires further investigation to improve access to fertility care in underserved communities.

The ability of a low value on an early GCT to identify women not needing repeat testing in the second trimester.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the predictive value of a low early glucose challenge test (GCT) in ruling out a subsequent diagnosis of gestational diabetes in the second trimester. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of women at a single clinic who had a normal early GCT between 2016 and 2020. Patients who did not have repeat screening in the late second trimester were excluded. Demographic data were extracted from the record. The primary outcome was a normal GCT or glucose tolerance test in the late second trimester. Logistic regression and receiver operator curves (ROC) were performed to assess the ability of the early GCT value to predict subsequent normal glucose screening. RESULTS: Of the 532 pregnant persons with normal early GCT, 62 (11.7%) were subsequently diagnosed with gestational diabetes in the second trimester. None of the patients (N = 56), who had a GCT value less than 80 mg/dL were diagnosed with gestational diabetes in the second trimester. The prediction of subsequent normal screening using the early GCT on a ROC plot produced an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.67, 95% CI (0.60-0.74). Adding age, prior history of gestational diabetes and family history of diabetes mellitus to the prediction, only improved the AUC to 0.75, 95% CI (0.66, 0.82). CONCLUSION: Early GCT value was a fair predictor for normal second trimester glucose testing for gestational diabetes. However, high-risk patients with an early GCT value of less than 80 mg/dL may be able to forego repeat second trimester screening.

Comparison of aneuploidy rates between conventional in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection in in vitro fertilization-intracytoplasmic sperm injection split insemination cycles.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the influence of insemination methods on outcomes of preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) by assessing PGT-A results in embryos that derived from conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF) versus intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in sibling oocytes. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Single academic IVF center. PATIENTS: A total of 118 couples who underwent 131 split insemination cycles from July 2016-July 2019. INTERVENTIONS: In all cycles, sibling oocytes were allocated randomly to conventional IVF or ICSI prior to stripping. Preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy was performed via trophectoderm biopsy and next-generation sequencing with 24-chromosome screening. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Rates of euploid, aneuploid, and mosaic embryos per biopsy. RESULTS: A total of 2,129 oocytes were randomized to conventional IVF (n = 1,026) and ICSI (n = 1,103). No difference was observed in the aneuploidy rates (50.3% vs. 45.2%) and percentages of mosaic embryos (1.7% vs. 2.4%) per biopsy between conventional IVF and ICSI sibling oocytes. Percentages of different aneuploidy types and aneuploidies that involved sex chromosome abnormalities (6.2% vs. 7.2%) were similar between the two groups. In the end, the overall chance to have an euploid embryo per allocated oocyte in the two groups was similar (13.2% vs. 15.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Blastocysts created with conventional IVF and ICSI using sibling oocytes had similar rates of aneuploidy and mosaicism as examined using 24-chromosome screening. It is unlikely that conventional IVF caused significant contamination during PGT-A. We recommend conventional IVF as the preferred insemination method in PGT-A cycles, and ICSI should be indicated only in cases of male-factor infertility.

Predictors of default from follow-up care in a cervical cancer screening program using direct visual inspection in south-western Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Increasingly evidence is emerging from south East Asia, southern and east Africa on the burden of default to follow up care after a positive cervical cancer screening/diagnosis, which impacts negatively on cervical cancer prevention and control. Unfortunately little or no information exists on the subject in the West Africa sub region. This study was designed to determine the proportion of and predictors and reasons for default from follow up care after positive cervical cancer screen. METHOD: Women who screen positive at community cervical cancer screening using direct visual inspection were followed up to determine the proportion of default and associated factors. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine independent predictors of default. RESULTS: One hundred and eight (16.1%) women who screened positive to direct visual inspection out of 673 were enrolled into the study. Fifty one (47.2%) out of the 108 women that screened positive defaulted from follow-up appointment. Women who were poorly educated (OR: 3.1, CI: 2.0 - 5.2), or lived more than 10 km from the clinic (OR: 2.0, CI: 1.0 - 4.1), or never screened for cervical cancer before (OR: 3.5, CI:3:1-8.4) were more likely to default from follow-up after screening positive for precancerous lesion of cervix . The main reasons for default were cost of transportation (48.6%) and time constraints (25.7%). CONCLUSION: The rate of default was high (47.2%) as a result of unaffordable transportation cost and limited time to keep the scheduled appointment. A change from the present strategy that involves multiple visits to a "see and treat" strategy in which both testing and treatment are performed at a single visit is recommended.