Paternal ischemic heart disease and chance of successful pregnancy outcomes

Only approximately 30% of conceptions result in live births. Historically, research has predominantly focused on maternal factors impacting pregnancy success, despite the cause remaining unidentified in most cases. The influence of paternal factors on a couple's likelihood of achieving a successful pregnancy is still not well understood and warrants further investigation.

This study aims to examine the chance of biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, and a live-born child in couples where the male partner has ischemic heart disease.

This nationwide cohort study based on Danish health registries included couples undergoing in vitro fertilization with or without intracytoplasmic sperm injection from 2006 to 2019. The cohort was divided into two groups: exposed and unexposed. The exposed cohort included embryo transfers in couples where the male partner had ischemic heart disease, while the unexposed group included those where the male partner did not have this condition.

A total of 101,875 couples with a known male partner were included. Among these, 653 couples were included in the exposed cohort and 101,222 were included in the unexposed cohort. The adjusted odd ratios (ORs) for a biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, and live-born child were 0.99 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.79; 1.23), 0.79 (95% CI: 0.51, 1.23), and 0.94 (95% CI: 0.62, 1.44), respectively.

These findings indicate that paternal ischemic heart disease prior to oocyte retrieval is not associated with a statistically significant decrease in the chances of biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, or live birth.