Levine AD, et al. - Analysts study cross-border reproductive care (CBRC) by evaluating the frequency and nature of assisted reproductive technology (ART) care that non-U.S. residents receive in the United States. This examination demonstrated that non-U.S. resident cycles accounted for a growing share of all U.S. ART cycles and made higher use of specialized treatment techniques. This study provides important baseline data on CBRC in the U.S. and may also prove to be useful to organizations interested in improving access to fertility treatments.

Methods

• For this research, they designed a retrospective study.
• This was the study of ART cycles reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National ART Surveillance System (NASS) from 2006 to 2013.
• This study was conducted at private and academic ART clinics.
• From 2006 to 2013, patients who participated in ART cycles in the United States were enrolled in this study.

Results

• From 2006 to 2013, a total of 1,271,775 ART cycles were reported to NASS.
• The percentage of ART cycles performed for non-U.S. residents increased from 1.2% (n = 1,683) in 2006 to 2.8% (n = 5,381) in 2013 (P<.001), with treatment delivered to residents of 147 countries.
• Compared with resident cycles, non-U.S. resident cycles had higher utilization of oocyte donation (10.6% vs. 42.6%), gestational carriers (1.6% vs. 12.4%), and preimplantation genetic diagnosis or screening (5.3% vs. 19.1%).
• U.S. resident and non-U.S. resident cycles had similar embryo transfer and multiple birth rates.