Effect of male body mass index on live-birth sex ratio of singletons after assisted reproduction technology.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the effect of male body mass index (BMI) on the probability of achieving a live birth and the sex ratio of singletons at birth after IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment.

DESIGN

A retrospective cohort study.

SETTING

University-affiliated infertility center.

PATIENT(S): Patients seeking infertility treatment who received IVF or ICSI treatment with autologous oocytes from January 2009 to December 2013.

INTERVENTION(S): None.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Live-birth sex ratio of singletons at birth stratified by male BMI and adjusted by parental age, parental BMI, type of infertility, parity, embryo culture media, and cause of infertility.

RESULT(S): A total of 8,490 couples undergoing IVF or ICSI treatment resulted in 39.12% live births and gave birth to 2,377 live birth singletons and 943 twins. There was no significant difference in the live birth rate between groups stratified by BMI. The probability of live births for overweight and obese groups were not decreased compared with the normal-weight group; similar null findings existed in the IVF and ICSI subgroups. Of note, the sex ratio of offspring in the overweight and obese male groups was significantly higher than in the normal-weight group (1.27 vs. 1.07). Male BMI was significantly associated with sex ratio of singletons after adjusting for confounders. In twins, incidences of twins with male-male infants in the overweight/obese group were not different from the normal-weight group.

CONCLUSION(S): Increased male BMI has no effect on live birth success, but has an increased probability of giving birth to male singletons.