BIRTH CHARACTERISTICS AND PERINATAL OUTCOME OF BABIES CONCEIVED FROM CRYOPRESERVED EMBRYOS

The objective of this retrospective study was to compare the birth cha racteristics and perinatal mortality of babies conceived from the use of cryopreserved embryos with those resulting from in-vitro fertilizat ion (IVF) and fresh embryo transfer. A total of 232 consecutive births , one pregnancy termination and a total of 283 babies in the cryoprese rved group were studied. The IVF data included 763 births, three termi nations and 961 babies, based on a previous analysis. There was no dif ference in the incidence of twin (18 versus 19%) and triplet births (2 versus 3%) in the cryopreserved and IVF groups respectively. The mean gestational age and birthweight of singleton, twin and triplet births were not significantly different between the groups. No difference wa s found in the perinatal mortality rates. The incidence of major conge nital malformations in the cryopreserved group (1%) was significantly lower than that in the IVF group (3%; P < 0.05). It is concluded that the birth characteristics of babies conceived from cryopreserved/thawe d embryos are similar to those from fresh embryos. There are fewer con genital malformations in the cryopreserved group.