Impact of paternal age on IVF and pregnancy outcomes with only normal sperm parameters

Abstract

Objective: Previous reports on advanced paternal age effects on assisted reproductive technology (ART) vary considerably and those on frozen–thawed embryo transfer (FET) are rare. We investigated whether paternal age affects in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and FET pregnancy outcomes. Materials and methods: 1657 IVF cycles performed from January 2014 to May 2018 were retrospectively investigated excluding cases of poor semen parameters. Paternal and maternal ages were categorised into groups, namely, <35, 35–39 and ≥ 40 years, to compare normal fertilisation (2 PN (pronuclei)) and high-quality blastocyst rates. Furthermore, 741 FET cycles were investigated and pregnancy, live birth and miscarriage rates were compared. Results: For the maternal age group (35–39), the 2 PN rate was significantly higher with paternal age group of <35 than groups of 35–39 and ≥ 40 (median%, <35 vs. 35–39 vs. ≥40 = 100.0 vs. 71.4 vs. 77.7; P = 0.005). The miscarriage rate was significantly higher with paternal age group of ≥40 than that of <35 and 35–39 when maternal age was <35 (median %, <35 vs. 35–39 vs. ≥40 = 13.1 vs. 7.8 vs. 33.3; P = 0.038). Conclusion: Our findings show that when maternal age was <35, advanced paternal age reduces the normal fertilisation rate and increases the FET miscarriage rate when maternal age was 35–39.

Keywords

• Paternal age
• Assisted reproductive technology
• Embryo transfer
• In vitro fertilisation
• Maternal age
• Blastocyst