The age of the male partner of the recipient in egg donation procedure a possible factor in declining pregnancy rates

Abstract

More women in everyday practice are referring to infertity clinics for the complaint of diminished ovarian reserve or even early menopause. In this regard, a question rises whether reduced pregnancy rates among these women is related with advancing endometrium or advancing male age. The data from patients performing egg donation, helps as to investigate the endometrium and male factor regardless of oocyte factor. The older men usually reproduce with older women and this should be also taken into account. The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of recipient age and their male partners age on the pregnancy rates in egg donation model. The data of 800 women undergoing oocyte donation program in two separate assisted reproductive technologies centers was retrospectively evaluated. All of the patients had a intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) regardless of the sperm count. Women who underwent ART with surgically retrieved spermatozoa and male with oligoasthenoteratozoospermia were excluded. All of the patients used the same protocols for endometrial preparation. Pregnancy rate was defined as a positive hCG blood test 12 days after the embryo transfer. To estimate the independent contribution of recipient age and male partner age logistic regression analyses were performed. Totally 1025 oocyte donated embryo transfer cycles were performed during this period. The mean donor age was 26.1 (±3.54) and the mean number of embryos transferred was 3.6 (±0.58). The recipients ages were within the range of 23 to 58 years. The mean age of the recipients was 40.9 (±6.42) years. The male partners ages were between 68–23 and mean age was 42.7 (±7.23). In logistic regression analyses model (dependant variable was pregnancy rate and independant variables were female age and the ages of the male partner of the recipients), it was seen that the icreasing age of the male partner, although very little, has a role in decreasing pregnancy rate as the age of the female recipient increases (OR = 0.978) (%95 CI 0.960–0.996). The endometrial factor in terms of aging was not of importance on the outcome of oocyte donated cycles. The effects of advanced age of the male partner may be the factor responsible for the decreasing pregnancy rates in advanced maternal age egg donation recipients. The verification of this needs larger studies where the decrease in pregnancy rate can be correlated with the advanced maternal age so that the paternal effects could be seen easily.