Obstetric outcome of 424 pregnancies after intracytoplasmic sperm injection

An evaluation of the outcome of pregnancies resulting from intracytoplasmic sperm injection for severe male factor infertility was conducted by analysing the data obtained from the patients and/or their obstetrician/gynaecologist on standardized questionnaires. The data from 424 pregnancies between April 1991 and September 1994 were analysed. Early pregnancy loss before 16 weeks occurred in 99 cases (23.3%), including 48 clinical abortions (11.3%), 47 subclinical pregnancies (11.1%) and four ectopic pregnancies (0.9%). Vanishing twins and triplets, which could be regarded as early embryonic wastage, were found in 36 cases (8.5%). One pregnancy was interrupted at week 15 of gestation because of anhydramnios, and four pregnancies (0.9%) ended in spontaneous late abortions before 26 weeks. A total of 320 pregnancies (75.5%) resulted in the birth of at least one child; 222 of these (69.3%) were singletons, 93 were twins (29.1%) and five were triplets (1.6%). The problems of prematurity and low birthweight were especially related to the multiplicity of pregnancies. Furthermore, from among the total of 423 babies born, we have observed three cases of stillbirth and five cases of neonatal mortality. The perinatal mortality rate was therefore 18.9 per 1000 births. The results of this study show that the obstetric outcome of these pregnancies was similar to that obtained after conventional in-vitro fertilization and other assisted reproduction techniques.