Abstract
Background
Investigations of the long-term effects of the COVID-19 are ongoing. This investigation aimed to explore the impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection during controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) on the pregnancy and obstetric outcomes in frozen-thawed embryo transfers (FETs) cycles. This area has not been thoroughly examined in previous research.
Methods
A retrospective cohort study including 126 couples with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection during COS, undergoing FET cycles with embryos generated from the infection before July 31 of 2023. Controls were women with non-infected during the COS and matched by age, number, and day of embryo transfer in the same time. Demographic and cycle characteristics and pregnancy and obstetric were examined for this retrospective cohort analysis.
Results
The study included 300 infertile couples, with 126 having an infection during the COS and the remaining 174 not infected. The clinical pregnancy rates were 58.8% and 58.6% respectively (P = 0.958). Other pregnancy features, such as biochemical pregnancy, early miscarriage rate, ongoing pregnancy, cumulative clinical pregnancy were also comparable between the two groups. There also were no significant differences of obstetric outcomes were found between the groups in terms of cesarean section rate, gestational age and premature delivery rate between the two groups.
Conclusions
In FET cycles of patients with embryos generated from SARS-CoV-2 infection, no significant difference of pregnancy and obstetric outcomes were observed. FET can be safely continued in patients with past COVID-19 during COS. However, more research is needed to figure out COVID-19's long-term impact on the physical and psychological development of newborns.