African-American women less successful with IVF
December 3, 2008 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Women's Health
After researchers looked at the results of more than 70,000 in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment cycles, they found that African-American women were less likely have a successful pregnancy than white women when they were using their own unfrozen eggs. There wasn’t a similar difference with frozen embryos though.
According to an article published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, only 19% of African-American women had successful pregnancies with their own unfrozen eggs compared with 26% of white women. But with the frozen embryos, 16.5% of African Americans succeeded while 16% of whites did.
There are often some differences between different ethnic and racial groups when it comes to health issues. For example, African Americans have a higher rate of hypertension (high blood pressure) than white. In the case of the less successful IVF treatments, the researchers pointed out that African-American women are often older than white women when they attempt IVF, decreasing the chances of conceiving or carrying a pregnancy to term. As well, it’s been found that African-American women have a higher rate of abnormalities in their pelvis, which can affect pregnancy.
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Tags: pregnancy blog, in vitro fertilization, IVF, pregnancy
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