Novel research, presented today at the ESHRE 40 th Annual Meeting in Amsterdam, reveals significant social disparities in achieving live births following assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment. Women with a research education (PhD) were over three times more likely to achieve a live birth compared to those with a primary school education, while women in the highest income group were twice as likely than those in the lowest income group. Conducted by researchers from the University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet), the national, register-based study analyzed data from 68,738 women aged 18-45 who underwent ART treatment in Denmark between 1994 and 2017.
The primary outcome investigated was live birth after initiating ART treatment. The study found that the possibility of achieving a first live birth after initiating ART treatment increased progressively with higher levels of education and income. Women with a research education exhibited the highest likelihood (HR=3.
02 [95% CI 2.71; 3.35]), compared to those with a primary school education.
In addition, women in the highest income group had twice the likelihood of achieving a live birth compared to women in the lowest income group. Unemployed women had the lowest likelihood of success, being a third less likely to have a live birth after ART treatment compared to employed women [HR=0.67 [95% CI 0.
64; 0.69]). These findings were consistent across the different age groups examined and fo.