Age, body mass index, and number of previous trials: are they prognosticators of intra-uterine-insemination for infertility treatment?

BACKGROUND: To examine whether pregnancy rate (PR) of intrauterine insemination (IUI) is related to certain demographic factors, such as age and body mass index (BMI), along with number of IUI cycles performed, a set of infertile Saudi women.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: During this prospective study (a 24-month period), 301 Saudi women with infertility underwent IUI in our infertility clinic. We investigated whether PR is correlated with patient age and BMI, and the number of IUI trials, in order to determine if they could be used as prognosticators of pregnancy success.

RESULTS: The highest PR was 14.89% for ages 19-25 and the lowest PR was 4.16% for ages 41-45, indicating no statistically significant difference among PR in all age groups (p value of 0.225). Also, in terms of BMI, the highest PR was 13.04% for BMI ≥35 and the lowest was 7.84% for BMI of <25 to 18.5, indicating no significant difference among different BMI groups (p value of 0.788). One-cycle treatment, as expected, was more successful (PR=12.84%) than 2-cycle treatment (PR=5.75%), however, 3-5-cycles treatment still showed encouraging results (PR=17.24%); but the difference did not reach statistical significance (p value=0.167).

CONCLUSION: PR after IUI treatment remained approximately 10% from 19 to 40 years of age and declined after 40. Although no significant difference was observed among different age groups, earlier treatment is still recommended. There was a positive but not statistically significant correlation between PR and patient's BMI indicating that BMI is not a determining factor. There was also no correlation between PR and number of IUI trials. Patients can thus try as many times as they want before moving on to in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment.