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© 2025 Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ Group. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ . Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Purpose

Tuberculosis (TB) is a significant factor contributing to infertility. For some infertile patients, chest radiography (CXR) screenings prior to assisted reproductive treatment (ART) reveal old/inactive TB lesions. However, the pregnancy outcomes after ART for such patients who had a history of prior anti-TB treatment remain unclear.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Peking University Third Hospital, a tertiary care centre.

Participants

This study analysed and focused on infertile patients aged 20–50 years with prior TB lesions on CXR (treated/untreated) and normal CXR. Active TB cases were excluded from this study. Patients were categorised into three groups based on CXR findings and prior anti-TB treatment: treated prior-pulmonary TB (PTB) group, untreated prior-PTB group and a non-PTB control group with normal CXR.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

ART outcomes, including clinical pregnancy rate, miscarriage rate and live birth rate, were compared among the groups.

Findings to date

Among 8769 patients analysed, including treated prior-PTB group (n=171), untreated prior-PTB group (n=791) and non-PTB group (n=7807). The treated prior-PTB group showed a similar clinical pregnancy rate (41.5% vs 38.1%, p=0.360) and live birth rate (35.3% vs 30.6%, p=0.187) compared with the non-PTB group. The miscarriage rate was slightly lower in the treated prior-PTB group than in the non-PTB group (11.3% vs 15.5%, p=0.325), although the discrepancy was not statistically significant. Compared with the untreated prior-PTB group, the treated prior-PTB group exhibited significantly higher live birth rate (35.3% vs 23.8%, p<0.05), clinical pregnancy rate (41.5% vs 31.7%, p<0.05) and with a lower miscarriage rate (11.3% vs 19.1%, p=0.123), although the latter was not statistically significant. Multivariable regression confirmed significantly higher live birth rates in the treated prior-PTB group versus untreated prior-PTB group (aOR: 1.69, 95% CI: 1.01 to 2.83, p=0.045).

Conclusions and Future plans

Anti-TB treatment in infertile women with prior PTB lesions was associated with improved ART outcomes, comparable to those in patients without TB lesions. This suggests a potential clinical benefit of anti-TB treatment in improving reproductive outcomes in this population. Further research is warranted to explore ART outcomes in patients with untreated prior TB lesions.

Details

Title
Effect of prior anti-tuberculosis treatment on assisted reproductive outcomes in infertile women: a retrospective cohort study
Author
Sheng, Zikang 1 ; Zeng, Lin 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Chen, Lixue 3 ; Zhang, Chen 4 ; Gai, Xiaoyan 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Chi, HongBin 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Sun, Yongchang 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Li, Rong 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China 
 Center of Clinical Epidemiology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China 
 Center for Reproductive Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China; National Clinical Research Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology, Beijing, China 
 Information Center, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China 
First page
e098692
Section
Reproductive medicine
Publication year
2025
Publication date
2025
Publisher
BMJ Publishing Group LTD
e-ISSN
20446055
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3231187542
Copyright
© 2025 Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ Group. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ . Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.