Preterm birth, ovarian endometriomata, and assisted reproduction technologies

Objective To report preterm birth and small for gestational age (SGA) rates from assisted reproduction technologies (ART) patients with ovarian endometriomata compared with control groups. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting Tertiary university affiliated ART center and Perinatal Data Collection Unit (PDCU). Patient(s) Every woman who had an ART singleton baby born between 1991 and 2004 had her database record assessed (N = 4382). Control groups included 1201 singleton babies from ART patients without endometriosis and 2400 randomly selected women from the PDCU database of 850,000 births. Intervention(s) There were 95 singleton ART babies from patients with ovarian endometriomata and 535 ART singleton babies from patients who had endometriosis but no ovarian endometriomata. Main Outcome Measure(s) Preterm birth rates and SGA birth rates. Result(s) Preterm birth rate increased only in the ovarian endometriomata group when compared with community birth records (n = 850,000). Furthermore, ART patients with ovarian endometriomata had a statistically significantly increased likelihood of having a SGA baby when compared with other forms of endometriosis. Conclusion(s) Rates of preterm birth and SGA babies doubled in infertility patients with ovarian endometriomata who required ART.