Reproductive performance of couples discordant for hepatitis B and C following IVF treatment

To examine the reproductive performance of hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) discordant couples following IVF-ET.

A retrospective cohort study of 25 IVF-ET cycles in HBV and HCV discordant couples was performed. Thirteen patients in the study cohort were discordant for HBV (10 males and 3 females), and 12 (9 males and 3 females) for HCV. Twenty-seven consecutive age matched patients comprised the control group. All patients underwent controlled ovarian hyperstimulation using the long downregulation protocol followed by IVF or ICSI.

Patients in the three groups (HBV, HCV, and controls) had similar ages, and day 3 FSH concentrations. Despite comparable response to COH, and similar fertilization, and cleavage rates in the three groups, couples discordant for HBV or HCV had significantly poorer implantation and pregnancy rates (7.7%, 0% respectively) compared with controls (41%).

Despite comparable response to COH, HBV and HCV positive discordant couples, have significantly lower implantation and pregnancy rates compared with age-matched controls.