Assisted reproductive technology: Experience from a public tertiary institution in north central Nigeria

Abstract

Background: According to the World Health Organization, more than 180 million couples globally suffer from infertility, the majority being residents of developing countries. Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) offer a chance at parenthood to couples, who until recently would have had no hope of having a “biologically related” child. Objectives: This study aimed to determine pregnancy outcomes following assisted conception. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective study of 104 clients who underwent the procedure of ART between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2016 at the ART unit of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria. Results: Of the 510 clients who had infertility consultation at the ART clinic, 104 (20.4%) underwent ART procedures. The patients aged 27–46 years with a mean age of 33 ± 4.0 years. More than half (58.7%) had primary infertility. Their duration of infertility ranged from 1 to 20 years (4.6 ± 2.9 years). Majority (81.7%) had conventional in vitro fertilization while 19 (18.3%) had intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Thirteen (12.5%) cases of cycle cancellation and 11 (11.7%) cases of mild-to-moderate ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome were recorded. The clinical pregnancy rate per cycle started was 39.4%. However, 9/41 (22%) resulted in spontaneous miscarriages and 32 (6 sets of twin, 25 singleton, and 1 high-order multiple births) were successfully delivered, giving a live birth rate per cycle started of 30.8%. Pregnancy outcomes were not significantly affected by age of the women, types of infertility, and duration of infertility (P > 0.05). Conclusion: The outcomes of ART procedures in a resource-limited country like ours are encouraging. This underscores the need to encourage ART in public tertiary institutions in Nigeria through the support of government and nongovernmental organizations for the benefit of infertile couples who were hitherto hopeless.