Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 May 13;18(1):45.
doi: 10.1186/s12958-020-00605-z.

COVID-19 and assisted reproductive technology services: repercussions for patients and proposal for individualized clinical management

Carlo Alviggi  1 , Sandro C Esteves  2   3   4 , Raoul Orvieto  5   6 , Alessandro Conforti  7 , Antonio La Marca  8 , Robert Fischer  9 , Claus Y Andersen  10 , Klaus Bühler  11   12 , Sesh K Sunkara  13 , Nikolaos P Polyzos  14 , Ida Strina  7 , Luigi Carbone  7 , Fabiola C Bento  15 , Daniela Galliano  16 , Hakan Yarali  17 , Lan N Vuong  18   19 , Michael Grynberg  20 , Panagiotis Drakopoulos  21   22 , Pedro Xavier  23 , Joaquin Llacer  24 , Fernando Neuspiller  25 , Marcos Horton  26 , Matheus Roque  27 , Evangelos Papanikolaou  28   29 , Manish Banker  30 , Michael H Dahan  31 , Shu Foong  32   33 , Herman Tournaye  21 , Christophe Blockeel  21 , Alberto Vaiarelli  34 , Peter Humaidan  35   36 , Filippo M Ubaldi  34 ; POSEIDON (Patient-Oriented Strategies Encompassing IndividualizeD Oocyte Number) group
Affiliations

COVID-19 and assisted reproductive technology services: repercussions for patients and proposal for individualized clinical management

Carlo Alviggi et al. Reprod Biol Endocrinol. .

Abstract

The prolonged lockdown of health services providing high-complexity fertility treatments -as currently recommended by many reproductive medicine entities- is detrimental for society as a whole, and infertility patients in particular. Globally, approximately 0.3% of all infants born every year are conceived using assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments. By contrast, the total number of COVID-19 deaths reported so far represents approximately 1.0% of the total deaths expected to occur worldwide over the first three months of the current year. It seems, therefore, that the number of infants expected to be conceived and born -but who will not be so due to the lockdown of infertility services- might be as significant as the total number of deaths attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. We herein propose remedies that include a prognostic-stratification of more vulnerable infertility cases in order to plan a progressive restart of worldwide fertility treatments. At a time when preventing complications and limiting burdens for national health systems represent relevant issues, our viewpoint might help competent authorities and health care providers to identify patients who should be prioritized for the continuation of fertility care in a safe environment.

Keywords: Assisted reproductive technology; COVID-19; In vitro fertilization; Infertility; Intracytoplasmic sperm injection; Poseidon criteria; Viewpoint.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CA and SE declare the receipt of unrestricted research grants from Merck, and lecture fees from Merck. RO, AC, RF, FN, and MR have received honoraria for lectures from Merck. ALM has received unrestricted research grants from MSD, Merck, Ferring, Theramex, Beckman Coulter, IBSA, Gedon-Richter, Roche as well as honoraria for lectures from the same companies. KB has received honoraria for lectures from Bayer and Merck, and unrestricted research grant from Theramex. SS declares the receipt of honorarium for lectures from Merck, MSD, and Ferring. NP has received unrestricted grants or lecture fees from Merck, MSD, Gedeon-Richter, IBSA, Besins, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and Theramex. HY and MH declares receipt of honorarium for lectures from Merck and Ferring. LV has received speaker’s fees from Merck, Ferring, and research grants from MSD. PD declare the receipt of honorarium for lectures from Merck, MSD, and Ferring, and unrestricted research grant form MSD. PX declares receipt of lecture fees from Merck, Gedeon-Richter, Ferring, and MSD. JL has received research grants from MSD and IBSA, Merck as well as honoraria for lectures from MSD, Merck, Ferring, Theramex, and IBSA. CB has received unrestricted grants and lecture fees from Abbott, MSD, Gedeon-Richter, and Ferring Pharmaceuticals. HT has received grants from Roche, MSD, Cook, Ferring, Research Funders of Flanders, Gedeon-Richter, Abbott, and ObsEva, as well as consulting fees from Gedeon-Richter, Abbott, and ObsEva. PH has received unrestricted research grants from MSD and Merck, as well as honoraria for lectures from MSD, Merck, Gedeon–Richter, Theramex, and IBSA. The remaining authors (CYA, FCB, ID, LC, DG, MG, MB, MHD, HT, EP, SF, AV, and FMU) declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
COVID − 19 and Assisted Reproductive Technology: proposal for individualized clinical management
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. ASRM. American Society For Reproductive Medicine (Asrm) Patient Management And Clinical Recommendationsduring The Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic Available from: https://www.asrm.org/news-and-publications/covid-19/statements/patient-m.... 2020.
    1. ESHRE. Coronavirus Covid-19: ESHRE statement on pregnancy and conception. 2020.
    1. COVID-19. Coronavirus Pandemic. Available from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/. 2020.
    1. Esteves SC, Alviggi C, Humaidan P, Fischer R, Andersen CY, Conforti A, et al. The POSEIDON criteria and its measure of success through the eyes of clinicians and embryologists. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2019;10:814. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2019.00814. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Adamson GD, de Mouzon J, Chambers GM, Zegers-Hochschild F, Mansour R, Ishihara O, et al. International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technology: world report on assisted reproductive technology, 2011. Fertil Steril. 2018;110:1067–1080. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2018.06.039. - DOI - PubMed