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Study Question: What is the frequency and the associated factors of very early dropout following unsuccessful clomiphene citrate (CC)/gonadotropin treatment in the context of full coverage of treatment cost., Summary Answer: Despite free treatment, almost one in four women had a very early dropout following unsuccessful CC/gonadotropin treatment, with patients below the poverty line being more likely to drop out early., What Is Known Already: Success of infertility care is tarnished by very high dropout rates. Infertility care dropout has been considered as resulting principally from financial barriers because of the high cost of treatment. Nearly all previous work addressed dropout following IVF/ICSI. Factors associated with dropout following CC/gonadotropins may be different and also need to be investigated., Study Design, Size, Duration: Nationwide population-based cohort study., Participants/materials, Setting, Methods: Using the French national health insurance and hospital databases, we included in the cohort 27 416 women aged 18-49 years unsuccessfully treated with CC/gonadotropins in 2017. The main outcome was very early dropout, defined as discontinuation of all infertility treatment after unsuccessful treatment for 1-3 months. Very early treatment dropout was analysed by multivariate logistic regression., Main Results and the Role of Chance: Among women unsuccessfully treated with CC/gonadotropins, 22% dropped out of infertility care within 3 months. In multivariate analysis, higher early dropout following unsuccessful CC/gonadotropin treatment was associated with older and younger ages (≥35 and <25 years), being below the poverty line, being treated with CC prescribed by a general practitioner and lack of infertility tests or monitoring., Limitations, Reasons for Caution: This study is based on health administrative data that do not include reasons for dropout and record only a limited amount of information. It is thus not possible to analyse the reason for early dropout., Wider Implications of the Findings: Despite full coverage of all infertility treatment, women under the poverty line have a higher risk of very early dropout following unsuccessful CC/gonadotropin treatment. Better understanding is needed of the non-financial barriers and difficulties faced by these patients. To address disparities in infertility treatment, practitioner training could be reinforced to adapt to patients from different social and cultural backgrounds., Study Funding/competing Interest(s): This work was supported by the ANR StimHo project, grant ANR-17-CE36-0011-01 from the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare., Trial Registration Number: N/A., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.)

Study Question: What are the characteristics, motivation and experience of French patients seeking cross-border reproductive care (CBRC)?, Summary Answer: French patients seeking CBRC are same-sex couples, single women who are not eligible for assisted reproduction technologies (ARTs) in France and heterosexual couples seeking oocyte donation due to extremely limited access to this technique in France, while their choice of Greece as a destination is influenced by financial issues., What Is Known Already: CBRC is a new, increasing, complex and poorly understood phenomenon. A few studies have investigated UK, German or Italian CBRC patients, but none have specifically investigated French patients although France is one of the top four countries of origin of CBRC patients in Europe., Study Design, Size, Duration: A cross-sectional study was carried out in 2010-2012 in three ART centres in Greece, Belgium and Spain in order to investigate French patients treated in these centres. Recruitment was prospective in Greece and Belgium and retrospective in Spain. The overall response rate was 68%, with 128 French patients participating., Participants/materials, Setting, Methods: French patients filled in a questionnaire. Information was collected on their socio-economic characteristics and their search for ART treatment in France and in other countries., Main Results and the Role of Chance: In the Belgian centre, 89% of French patients used sperm donation whereas oocyte donation was used by 100% of patients in the Greek centre and 74% of patients in the Spanish centre. The majority (94%) of French patients using sperm donation in Belgium were not legally eligible for access to ART in France as they were same-sex couples or single women, and the main criterion of choice of centre was its geographical proximity (71%). Most of the French patients using oocyte donation in Greece and Spain fulfilled criteria for fully reimbursed oocyte donation treatment in France as they were heterosexual couples (99%) with the woman aged <43 years (65%). For these couples, CBRC was motivated by the extremely limited access to oocyte donation in France. Half of French CBRC patients using oocyte donation in Spain had a low/intermediate occupational level (such as primary school teachers, nurses, administrative officers or sales agents, workers and employees) and this proportion was much higher in Greece (82%, P < 0.01)., Limitations, Reasons for Caution: Larger and more wide-ranging studies are needed as this study included only 128 patients who may not be representative of all French CBRC patients, especially because the study was carried out only in three ART centres and these too may not be representative., Wider Implications of the Findings: CBRC among French patients had been thought to reflect mainly law evasion. This study showed that the reality is much more complex and that CBRC among French patients reflects both law evasion and limited access to oocyte donation in France. It also brings new insight into the characteristics of the patients by suggesting a certain degree of 'democratization' in access to such care. However, the choice of centre seemed related to socio-economic characteristics, in that the Greek centre treated a less advantaged population than the Spanish centre., Study Funding/competing Interest(s): This study was supported by French public research funds, the Institute Emilie du Châtelet from the Ile-de-France Region, the Biomedicine Agency and the Research Institute of Public Health (IReSP). There are no conflicts of interest., Trial Registration Number: Not applicable.

Background: The outcome of in vitro fertilization (IVF) has been widely investigated over the last 30 years, but evaluation was mostly based on pregnancy rate per oocyte retrieval. Our objective was to estimate the cumulative live birth rate after four IVF aspirations, using multiple imputation that takes into account treatment interruptions., Methods: We analysed data from 3037 couples beginning IVF treatment between 1998 and 2002 in two French IVF units. Multiple imputations were used at each aspiration to impute the IVF outcome (delivery or not) for couples who interrupted treatment. The global success rate after four aspirations was then computed., Results: At the first aspiration, 21% of couples obtained a live birth and 24% discontinued treatment. The multiple imputation method provided an estimated cumulative live birth rate at each aspiration as if no couple discontinued treatment: 35% at the second aspiration and 41% at the third. The cumulative success rate after four aspirations was estimated at 46% (95% CI: 44-48%)., Conclusions: Multiple imputation is a promising method for estimating the cumulative success rate of IVF. It could provide new insight on IVF evaluation and should be tested in further studies.

Background: This study was conducted to identify the risk factors for intrauterine device (IUD) failure., Methods: A retrospective case-control study was carried out between 1999 and 2002. Cases (women with an IUD and a confirmed pregnancy) and controls (women with an IUD and who were not pregnant) were recruited by gynaecologists. An anonymous questionnaire was filled in during the consultation, with specific items regarding any type of drugs used before the predicted fertile period for cases and within the cycle that ended in menses for controls., Results: Two hundred and sixteen cases were compared with 657 controls. Age was associated with IUD failure, with a significantly lower failure risk in women>35 years. A significant relationship was observed between a history of IUD expulsion and IUD failure risk (age-adjusted odds ratio 3.31, 95% CI 1.40-7.81). No relationship was observed between the risk of IUD failure and gynaecological background (fibroma, polyps and miscarriage), nor with any type of medicine taken by the woman., Conclusion: This study is clearly reassuring, as we found that anti-inflammatory drugs and any other medicines taken by the woman were not implicated in IUD failure. Only a history of previous IUD expulsion was found to be a risk factor for failure, indicating that these women should have regular medical and echographical follow-up. Comparing the efficacy rate of various types of IUDs, we found a clear advantage for levonorgestrel-releasing devices.

Background: Reports of a secular decrease in semen quality remain controversial, particularly due to the possibility of selection bias. We aimed to describe the potential bias due to self-selection of volunteers in semen studies involving fecund men., Methods: Using data from the French multicentre study REPRHOM, we compared the characteristics of the partners of pregnant women for three levels of participation: completion of a refusal questionnaire (n = 698), agreement to complete the study questionnaires only (n = 676) and agreement to complete the study questionnaires and give a semen sample (n = 331, 13% of the subjects approached)., Results: Poorly educated men refused more often to participate than highly educated men. Semen providers were more likely to have experienced unfavourable pregnancy outcomes (odds ratio 1.68, 95% confidence interval 1.14-2.49) compared with participants completing the questionnaires only. Time to pregnancy was similar for all participants., Conclusions: This study demonstrates the existence of selection bias in semen studies associated with fertility and socio-demographic characteristics of men. The results of semen analysis for this population sample cannot be extrapolated to the whole population from which the volunteers originate. More information is required on who participates, and participation rates should be reported in semen studies to make it possible to interpret the results correctly.

Background: It is well known that miscarriage risk increases with age. However, studies usually investigate only maternal age effects. We investigated both maternal age and paternal age effects on miscarriage risk to provide insight into this frequent reproductive failure., Methods: The last planned pregnancies (n = 3174) that ended in a birth or miscarriage were analysed in a retrospective population-based study on women aged 25-44 years in Denmark, Germany, Italy and Spain. Maternal and paternal ages were analysed together, using a single variable 'couple age' in a multivariate logistic regression analysis, with couples composed of a woman and a man both aged 20-29 years forming the reference group., Results: After adjustment for various factors (e.g. reproductive history, country), we found that the risk of miscarriage was higher if the woman was aged > or = 35 years, as has already been reported in a number of studies. However, the increase in risk was much greater for couples composed of a woman aged > or = 35 years and of a man aged > or = 40 years. Potential source of bias (especially 'reproductive compensation') are discussed., Conclusions: The risk of an adverse pregnancy outcome is highest if both partners are advanced in age.