LAUSR

RESEARCH QUESTION What was the utilization, effectiveness and perinatal outcome of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) performed in Latin America during 2016? DESIGN Retrospective collection of multinational data on ART performed in 178 institutions from 15 Latin American countries. RESULTS This paper reports on 85,474 initiated cycles, 15,070 deliveries and 18,182 babies born in this period. Of all fresh autologous IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles, 40.9% were performed in women aged 35-39 years, and 31.1% in women aged ≥40 years. After removing freeze-all cycles, delivery rate per oocyte retrieval was 20.31% for ICSI and 21.85% for IVF. Fresh single embryo transfer including all age categories represented 22.96%, with a 15.35% delivery rate per transfer. Double embryo transfer represented 61.58% of transfers, with a 27.62% delivery rate per transfer. Multiple births included 18.12% twins and 0.55% triplets and higher. In oocyte donation, delivery rate per transfer was 32.89%, with a twin and triplet rate of 23.48% and 0.73%, respectively. Overall, preterm deliveries reached 17.11% in singletons, 65.69% in twins and 95.51% in triplets. Perinatal mortality was 8.0‰ in singletons, 19.0‰ in twins, and 62.3‰ in high-order multiples. CONCLUSIONS The number of initiated cycles continues to increase. Compared with previous years, the number of embryos transferred decreased while the proportion of single embryo transfers increased with a drop in multiple births. It is vital to motivate health care providers and consumers to continue this trend.