Assisted reproductive technology in Latin America: the Latin American Registry, 2022

RESEARCH QUESTION: What are the trends and effects of assisted reproductive technology (ART) interventions on the effectiveness and safety of ART carried out in Latin America during 2022.

Retrospective collection of cycle-based multinational data obtained from ART procedures carried out by 204 accredited institutions in 16 countries.

In total 123,265 initiated cycles resulted in 19,663 deliveries and 22,203 births. Use of ART varied greatly, from 643.3 cycles/million inhabitants in Uruguay to 28.8 in Guatemala. In autologous cycles, the proportion of women aged ≥40 years represents 35.1% of cycles, whereas women <34 years represents only 18.8%. The proportion of single embryo transfers (SET) increased from 42.4% in 2021 to 47.3% in 2022. Out of 22,203 babies born, 77.4% were singletons, 21.7% twins and 0.9% triplets or more. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection represented 85.4% of fertilization techniques, and blastocyst transfer increased from 79.3% in 2021 to 85.3% in 2022. Delivery rate after fresh blastocyst elective single embryo transfer (32.6%) was significantly higher than after the transfer of one frozen embryo transfer (FET) from freeze-all cycle (25.2%) (P = 0.0001). The number of aspirations leading to preimplantation genetic testing increased 2.6 times in 6 years, and significantly increased delivery rates/transfer (P ≤ 0.008) and reduced miscarriage at all ages (P ≤ 0.004) in autologous cycles, but not in oocyte donation cycles. Delivery rates after fresh transfer of embryos from vitrified-warmed donated oocytes, generated similar outcome to FET from fresh oocyte donation cycles (P = 0.5621). Perinatal mortality increased from 7.5‰ in singletons to 22.8‰ in twins.

Systematic collection of cycle-based multinational data contributes to cooperative sustained development and helps implement evidence-based reproductive decisions.