Amelie Stenqvist of Lund University and colleagues from Denmark and Sweden conducted a prospective cohort study and found that sperm defects associated with assisted reproductive technologies (IVF and ICSI) are associated with an increased risk of preeclampsia and preterm birth. The analysis included data from 1,594 infertile couples and their 1,660 children conceived through IVF or ICSI from the Swedish National Birth Registry. The quality of the sperm used was assessed using the DNA fragmentation index. The results were published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
It was found that, starting with a DNA fragmentation level of 10 percent, the probability of preeclampsia in IVF (but not ICSI) increases dose-dependently from 3.1 to over 10 percent with a fragmentation index of 30 percent or more. The odds ratio (OR) of this complication with an index of 20 percent or more compared with less than 20 percent was 2.2 (95 percent confidence interval 1.1–4.4). Furthermore, in both IVF and ICSI, a sperm DNA fragmentation index of 20 percent or more was associated with an increased risk of preterm birth (OR 1.4; 95 percent confidence interval 1.0–2.0).
