EDITORIAL - Assisted Reproductive Technology in Egypt, 2001: results generated from the Egyptian IVF registry

Objective: To summarize the results of ART procedures cycles initiated in Egypt during the year 2001.
Design: The 'World Report on ART' forms, prepared by the International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technology (ICMART), were distributed to all IVF centers in Egypt.
Materials and methods: All IVF centers in Egypt were invited to voluntarily participate.
Main outcome measures: The total number of standard IVF, ICSI, FET after standard IVF and ICSI cycles, incidence of clinical pregnancy, abortion, delivery, stillbirth and complications rates.
Results: Data was anonymously received from 16 centers, with a total of 6,757 reported cycles. ICSI constituted 91.4%, IVF constituted 4.4%, while the frozen-thawed embryo replacement cycles represented only 4.2% of the total number of ART cycles. As for standard IVF, the clinical pregnancy rate per aspiration and per transfer was 27.5 and 27.9%, respectively. For ICSI, the corresponding rates were 33.1 and 34.7%. The distribution of singleton, twin, triplet and high-order deliveries for IVF, ICSI and FET combined was 67.2, 29.1, and 3.6 respectively. This gives a total multiple delivery rates of 32.7%. As a result of ART activities, 1,914 neonates were reported born. Complications of ART were mainly ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, complicating 2.2% of cycles; the occurrence of bleeding in 0.27% and infection in 0.07% of all aspiration cycles.
Conclusions: This is the third consecutive report of the activities of the Egyptian IVF registry for cycles initiated during the year 2001. The clinical pregnancy rates were comparable with the previous reports. The multiple pregnancy rate is still high due to the transfer of >3 embryos. The practice of cryopreservation of embryos is still limited to only a few centers. OHSS is also high and therefore in the future preventative measures must be stricter. More efforts are needed to complete data on deliveries and perinatal mortalities.