PhD-educated women have three times higher IVF live birth rates

Lower education level, income, employment and socioeconomic status are all associated with lower live birth rates following IVF.

Women with a PhD in Denmark were shown to have a three times higher chance of live birth following IVF compared to those who had just completed secondary education, analysis of a cohort of 68,738 women showed. Women with the highest level of income were also two times more likely to have a live birth after IVF than women in the lowest income bracket, researchers from Copenhagen in Denmark told the 40th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) in Amsterdam on Tuesday 9 July 2024.

'The research highlights the potential importance of the forms of social and cultural capital that patients might need in order to successfully navigate complex medical systems and especially treatments like IVF, which have a high burden on patients and do not have a straightforward care pathway.'

Denmark offers citizens three cycles of IVF free of charge via its public health system, but socioeconomic status was found to influence whether women started a second or third cycle. Authors said their non-peer reviewed granular analysis indicated that disparities in socioeconomic status and health outcomes were due to a range of factors, besides financial ones, considering the availability of some publicly-funded fertility treatment in Denmark.

Professor Geeta Nargund, senior NHS consultant gynaecologist and medical director of abc IVF, who was not involved in the research told BioNews: 'This research finding further highlights the unacceptable reality that factors such as socioeconomic background can affect fertility treatment outcomes. In the face of a global fertility crisis, it is essential that action is taken to tackle disparities facing women in all aspects of their healthcare, which can ultimately impact the chances of success in fertility treatment.

She added: 'The UK's gender health gap is the largest in the G20, and with those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds disproportionately affected by health issues and lack of access to care, is it vital that we see collaborative action across departments and organisations to tackle this. After all, general health goes hand in hand with fertility and maternal health – improving equality in women's health across the UK and beyond could be essential for improving fertility outcomes.'

Another study presented at ESHRE this year showed that women who become surrogates in Canada experienced poorer health during and after pregnancy than other women undergoing IVF. The same analysis showed that becoming a surrogate was linked to lower socioeconomic status and higher risk of high blood pressure before becoming a gestational carrier, despite widespread calls to screen potential surrogates for pregnancy-associated risk factors (see BioNews 1246).