Abstract
Research question
Does the maternal ABO blood type affect obstetric and perinatal outcomes following
frozen embryo transfer (FET)?
Design
A retrospective study was performed at a university-affiliated fertility centre, involving
women with singleton and twin deliveries conceived by FET. Subjects were divided into
four groups based on ABO blood type. The primary end-points were obstetric and perinatal
outcomes.
Results
A total of 20,981 women were involved, with 15,830 having singletons and 5151 delivering
twins. In singleton pregnancies, women with blood group B had a slight but significantly
increased risk of gestational diabetes mellitus compared to women with blood group
O (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.16; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01–1.34). Furthermore,
singletons born to women with the B antigen (blood type B or AB) were more likely
to be large for gestational age (LGA) and with macrosomia. In twin pregnancies, blood
type AB was related to a decreased risk of hypertensive diseases of pregnancy (aOR
0.58; 95% CI 0.37–0.92), while blood type A was associated with a higher risk of placenta
praevia (aOR 2.04; 95% CI 1.15–3.60). When compared with the O blood group, twins
from the AB blood group had a lower risk of low birthweight (aOR 0.83; 95% CI 0.71–0.98)
but a higher risk of LGA (aOR 1.26; 95% CI 1.05–1.52).
Conclusions
This study demonstrates that the ABO blood group may influence the obstetric and perinatal
outcomes for both singletons and twins. These findings emphasize that patient characteristics
could be, at least partly, responsible for adverse maternal and birth outcomes following
IVF.
Keywords
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Biography
Di Chen is currently completing an MD at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Her current research interests include reproductive epidemiology and assisted reproductive technologies.
Key message
The ABO blood group has the ability to influence the obstetric and perinatal outcomes for both singletons and twins resulting from IVF–FET. The current data suggests that patient characteristics, such as the ABO blood type, may partly account for the poor obstetric and perinatal outcomes related to IVF.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 09, 2023
Accepted:
January 5,
2023
Received:
September 24,
2022
Declaration: The authors report no financial or commercial conflicts of interest.Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 Reproductive Healthcare Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
