Does IVF improve pregnancy rates in unexplained infertile couples?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Does IVF improve pregnancy rates in unexplained infertile couples?
IRAS ID
233818
Contact name
David J McLernon
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Aberdeen
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Infertility is common and affects one in six couples who face a long and stressful journey to parenthood. Regardless of the cause, the treatment of choice for prolonged infertility which has not responded to other medication is in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). IVF is an invasive and expensive treatment which involves removing eggs from a woman’s ovaries and fertilising them in the laboratory to create embryos which are replaced within the womb. \nCouples with unexplained infertility i.e. those in whom no medical cause for their fertility problem can be found, present a particular clinical dilemma. They have a good chance of having a baby without treatment and there is no convincing proof that early treatment with IVF improves success rates. Yet the Scottish Government funds up to three rounds of IVF in couples with more than two years of unexplained infertility; while this may be entirely justified in some, it risks exposing others to significant overtreatment at great public expense.\nFurthermore, the universal popularity of IVF means that many couples feel that trying naturally is a waste of time and many clinicians feel that it is unethical to withhold treatment. This makes it impossible to assess the effectiveness of IVF by randomly assigning couples to either IVF or no treatment. We therefore plan to use the only possible ethical and practical method which involves analysing data from existing patient records from three databases – one containing all IVF treatments in the UK and two (from Grampian and The Netherlands) which record details of couples with unexplained infertility to natural conception or treatment. Our results will show whether couples with similar characteristics have a better chance of conceiving with IVF compared to trying naturally. This research will help couples with unexplained infertility, clinicians and policy makers to decide whether it is better to minimise stress, complications and costs of unnecessary treatment by trying to conceive naturally, or opt for early IVF.\n
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
17/NS/0122
Date of REC Opinion
1 Dec 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion