Smoking, Being Overweight Associated With Decreased Likelihood of IVF Success, Study Says

Main Category: Fertility
Article Date: 12 Apr 2005 - 10:00 PDT

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Women who smoke or are overweight while undergoing in vitro fertilization are less likely to have a successful pregnancy than nonsmokers and women of normal weight, according to a study published in the April issue of the journal... Human Reproduction, Melbourne's Age reports (Nader, Age, 4/8). Didi Braat of the Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen in the Netherlands and colleagues examined data on 8,457 women who underwent IVF between 1983 and 1995 (Pravda/newsfromrussia.com, 4/7). The women were divided into four groups according to the cause of fertility problems, including male fertility disorder, fallopian tube problems, other clinical explanations and those with unexplained fertility problems known as subfertility. Among all the participants, 40% smoked while undergoing their first IVF attempt and 7% of the women were overweight, according to BBC News. The overall live birth rate per IVF cycle was 15.2%, and smokers had a 28% lower birth rate than nonsmokers. Among the 1,828 women with subfertility, the birth rate for smokers was 13%, compared with 20% for nonsmokers. In addition, the miscarriage risk was 20% higher for smokers with subfertility than for nonsmokers in that group (BBC News, 4/7). Women who were overweight had a 33% lower chance of a live birth than normal-weight women (Reuters, 4/6). Braat said the researchers did not know why smoking decreases the chance for successful IVF treatment but said that smoking might affect the lining of the uterus or outer layer of a woman's eggs, according to ABC News (Reinberg, ABC News, 4/7).

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"Smoking has a devastating impact" on fertility, Braat said, adding, "It is comparable to adding a decade to the reproductive age of a 20-year-old. This means it makes her the equivalent of a 30-year-old nonsmoker in reproductive terms" (Fleming, Daily Telegraph, 4/7). Braat advised that women trying to become pregnant should stop smoking immediately, saying that not smoking "increases your chances to become pregnant, so you might not need IVF. You have a better chance of having a baby and less of a chance of having a miscarriage. It's also better for the baby. And also try to lose weight" (ABC News, 4/7). Dr. Simon Fishel, a specialist at the U.K.'s Care in the Park fertility clinics, said, "We know that smoking reduces a woman's chance of having a live birth and of getting pregnant, and 10 years sounds about right in terms of quantifying the effect," adding, "So if you say to them that by smoking they give themselves the same chance of success as if they were 10 years older, it brings home to them the effect the habit has" (BBC News, 4/7). Alison Murdoch, chair of the British Fertility Society and head of reproductive medicine at the Newcastle Centre for Life, said, "There is evidence that people who smoke do have impaired conception, and they should be advised to quit smoking," adding, "Unfortunately, we don't know precisely what the scientific basis of the relationship between smoking and fertility is" (Daily Telegraph, 4/7).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/repro The Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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