The Effect of Thrombophilia on Pregnancy Outcome and IVF Success

Abstract

Thrombophilia is a group of inherited and acquired coagulation disorders often associated with an increased risk of thrombosis. Over the last decade, inherited thrombophilia is often referred as a possible cause of recurrent miscarriages and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) failure. However, many studies in this area still give confl icting results, so the goal of our study was to determine the effect of thrombophilia on pregnancy outcome and success of IVF. The study included 38 patients with proven gene mutation for thrombophilia and 53 patients without mutations. The studied parameters were age, duration of infertility, dose of gonadotropins, duration of stimulation, number of embryo transfer (ET), number of oocytes retrieved, the number of days to ET and the outcome in terms of delivery (full term or premature), ectopic pregnancy or abortion. There was no signifi cant difference between two groups in the number of procedures performed, the number of twin pregnancies, abortions, twin miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, births and the etiology of infertility. A statistically signifi cant difference was found in the number of pregnancies (p=0.018) and in duration of infertility which was signifi - cantly longer in the group with thrombophilia (p<0.001). The number of abortions in homozygous PAI-1 was signifi - cantly more common (p=0.012). Procedures in natural cycle were signifi cantly more frequent in group with thrombophila (p=0.011), so we recommend in patients with proven mutation fi rst to start with procedures in the natural cycle, and only in case of failure to use the possibility of stimulating cycles. In conclusion, in patients on anticoagulant therapy a higher percentage of IVF failure has not been proven. Therefore, we strongly recommend the prophylactic use of low molecular weight heparin during pregnancy and screening for the most common mutations in our population, particularly in patients with a history of IVF failure and those with a long duration of infertility.