Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Latin America: the Latin American Registry, 2021

What are the trends and impact of new technologies on the effectiveness and safety of assisted reproductive technology (ART) performed in Latin America during 2021?

This was a retrospective collection of cycle-based multinational data obtained from ART procedures performed by 204 accredited institutions in 16 countries.

In total 127,351 initiated cycles resulted in 20,032 deliveries and 22,708 births. ART utilization showed great variability, from 623.5 cycles/million inhabitants in Uruguay to fewer than 35 in Guatemala and El Salvador. The proportion of women aged ≥40 years increased to 35.8%, while that of women ≤34 years dropped to 23.9%. Nonetheless, the proportion of single-embryo transfers (SET) increased from 11.9% in the previous decade to 42.4% in 2021. Of 22,708 babies born, 76.8% were singletons, 22.3% twins and 1.0% triplets or more. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection represented 84.5% of fertilization techniques, and blastocyst transfer increased from 49.6% in 2016 to 79.3% in 2021. The delivery rate after fresh blastocyst elective SET was significantly higher than after the transfer of one frozen embryo from a freeze-all cycle (p<0.0001). The number of aspirations leading to preimplantation genetic testing has increased 2.8 times in 5 years and significantly increased delivery rates/transfer at all ages, including in oocyte donation (p≤0.002), and reduced miscarriage in women ≥35 years old. In oocyte donation, delivery rates after the fresh transfer of embryos from vitrified-warmed oocyte cycles generated similar outcomes to frozen embryo transfer. Perinatal mortality increased from 7.7 ‰ in singletons to 21.3 ‰ in twins.

The systematic collection of cycle-based multinational data contributes to cooperative sustained development and helps implement evidence-based reproductive decisions.