This is the first large-scale study assessing the effects of BMI on pregnancy/ perinatal outcomes following FET in a Chinese cohort. Our results reveal that rates of implantation and ongoing/clinical pregnancy were significantly lower when mothers were underweight. When mothers were instead overweight, this was associated with a higher rate of very low birth weight or very preterm delivery. There was also a non-significant trend towards lower live birth rate in both the overweight and underweight groups relative to the normal weight group. There were no other significant effects of maternal BMI on perinatal characteristics or rates of congenital defects. While previous studies have found that obesity can be linked to poor IVF outcomes, our results provide new insight into the negative effects of being underweight on FET outcomes.
Many past assessments of how being underweight influences pregnancy outcomes have produced inconsistent results. For example, Cai et al. found that in a study of over 4000 women undergoing ovarian stimulation via the agonist or antagonist protocols, being underweight was linked to a lower rate of live births (low BMI:50% vs. normal BMI:52.4%, P=0.198) but this trend was not significant, whereas abortion rates were significantly increased in those with low BMI relative to those with a normal BMI (13.8% vs. 10.7%, P = 0.049) (18). A separate Danish study of 487 women undergoing frozen or fresh embryo transfer, however, detected no differences in rates of ongoing or ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, or live births in women who were underweight (19). A separate study of 332 women without PCOS beginning an initial IVF cycle with the downregulation, antagonist, or microflare protocols observed no effect of low body weight on rates of implantation, clinical pregnancy, or ongoing pregnancy (4). These previous studies had marked differences in methodology, using fresh or frozen embryos and adjusting for different risk factors, thus potentially explaining these divergent results. Lower fertility rates in underweight women can also be a function of lower levels of leptin (20), which is a hormone mainly produced by fat tissue (21). The receptor for leptin is known to be present within the secretory endometrium, potentially regulating uterine angiogenesis and implantation (22, 23).
Preterm birth and low birth weight are, in that order, the most prominent causes of death among neonates (24). In past work assessing outcomes of spontaneous pregnancies among underweight women, results have suggested that lower maternal BMI is linked to higher rates of both of these negative outcomes (25, 26), with similar findings for assessments of women undergoing fresh IVF cycles (17). This was in contrast to our results, which suggested largely similar perinatal outcomes among women with a lower BMI relative to normal controls. Indeed, past work of singleton children born following FET has suggested lower rates of both preterm birth and low birth rate relative to children born as a result of either fresh embryo transfer or spontaneous conception (27). This, coupled with our results, suggests the possibility that the freezing of embryos may improve outcomes, and that this is particularly true in the case of mothers who are underweight. One possibility explaining these better FET outcomes may be that the freeze-thaw process selects for higher quality embryos, as only these are able to survive this process, and that these higher quality embryos may thereafter be linked to lower rates of LBW and preterm birth (28, 29).
Unlike studies of underweight mothers, overweight mothers were found to have a higher risk of miscarriage, in addition to higher very low birth weight (<1500 g) and very preterm delivery (<32 weeks) risks. This was consistent with other past studies, which have found being overweight to be linked to reduced fertility (2), and to higher miscarriage rates and obstetric risk (30, 31). Abnormally high body weight is known to be linked to changes in overall carbohydrate metabolism and increasing resistance to insulin (32), which is often associated with inflammation mediated by interleukin(IL)-1ß, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor ɑ(33, 34). Stress as a consequence of physical infections or psychological factors can drive rising plasma levels of contrainsulin hormones such as cortisol or placental growth hormone (32). Elevated glucose levels in mothers have also been found in some studies to be associated with higher rates of subclinical infections, potentially resulting in higher rates of chorioamnionitis (35). Such subclinical infection are also linked with systemic inflammation, but can also be asymptomatic and result in instances of VPTD (35).
Among women undergoing FET, we observed no significant variation in congenital malformation rates as a function of BMI, which is largely consistent with work by Best et al. (36), who in a study of spontaneous conception observed no link between BMI and congenital deformity rates with the exception of an increase in cardiovascular malformations in underweight women. Unlike this past study, ours was among the first examining comparable outcomes in the context of a freeze-all-based FET approach. As our data regarding congenital defects came from patient questionnaires, there is a risk that any minor defects may have been overlooked, although this is unlikely to affect the overall study outcomes with respect to infant characteristics at birth.
Our study has several key strengths that lend the results credibility. For one, we had a large sample size and access to largely complete records with respect to the IVF protocols of enrolled patients, as well as detailed information on the resultant pregnancies and outcomes. As these results were collected from a single center, they also have the potential to be associated with a lower rate of heterogeneity than had they been derived from a broader multi-center study.
There are also several important limitations to this work. For one, as the study was retrospective in nature it is important that future randomized controlled trials validates the results discussed herein. Our results regarding overweight mothers was limited to results from a single group (BMI:25.0–29.9), whereas a larger dataset including obese (BMI 30.0–49.9) and superobese (BMI > 50) mothers may have provided additional insights. In addition, while we sought to control for as many confounding variables as possible, some may have unintentionally still introduced bias into our study results. Further controlled trials will help to overcome all these limitations.