Volume – 96 , Issue-4 , Page Number – 511-520, Published date – 14/05/2026
Affiliations
The First Clinical College, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China
The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan, China
Correspondence
Dr. Sun Zhengao, The First Clinical College, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China. Email: sunzhengao77@126.com.
Abstract
Objective: Correlations between maternal age and pregnancy outcomes after the use of assisted reproductive technology have been confirmed, with an obviously lower success rate in infertile patients of advanced maternal age. Other studies have investigated potential associations between advanced paternal age and adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, the correlation between the difference in age between maternal and male partners and pregnancy outcomes after the use of assisted reproductive technology for infertile patients is still unclear.
Methods: This retrospective study included 41,935 cycles of in vitro fertilization–embryo transfer (IVF-ET) performed at the Reproductive Medicine Department of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2015 to October 2023. The difference in age between partners was calculated as the paternal age minus the maternal age, and participants were stratified into 4-year age difference groups, with an age difference of 0 years as the reference category. Moreover, female partners were stratified into 5-year age groups. A generalized estimation equation was used to evaluate the effect of the difference in partner age on pregnancy outcomes after IVF-ET.
Results: For the group of maternal aged 35–39 years with partners who were 5–8 years younger or more than 8 years younger, the clinical pregnancy rate [aOR (95% CI): 1.117 (1.005, 1.242) and 1.471 (1.058, 2.770)] and live birth rate [aOR (95% CI): 1.152 (1.073, 1.427) and 1.156 (1.004, 1.419)] were significantly higher than those of the reference group. Similarly, for the group of maternal aged 40–44 years with partners who were 5–8 years younger or more than 8 years younger, the clinical pregnancy rate [aOR (95% CI): 1.087 (1.020, 1.159) and 1.470 (1.039, 2.079)] and live birth rate [aOR (95% CI): 1.574 (1.064, 2.330) and 1.679 (1.081, 2.609)] were significantly higher than those of the reference group. The clinical pregnancy rate and live birth rate did not significantly differ between the other groups and the reference group.
Conclusions: Infertile maternal aged 35–44 years with a partner who was 5 or more years younger may have better pregnancy outcomes after IVF-ET.
Keywords
Age, Age Difference, Infertility, Assisted Reproductive Technology, Pregnancy Outcome