Objective
To assess rates of COVID-19 positivity in a fertility treatment population who continued to seek care throughout the pandemic.
Materials and Methods
A retrospective chart review of all patients actively pursuing fertility treatment and had a positive COVID-19 test between March 2020 and February 2021 at a University-affiliated IVF center was performed. Testing was performed on medication start date, and regularly throughout the treatment cycles, approximately once a week. Social distancing, mask use, and temperature and symptomatic screening was implemented early in the process. Rates of infection were calculated by dividing COVID-19 positive patients (whether symptomatic or asymptomatic) by total number of patients in care. This was then multiplied by 100,000, in order to compare our rates to the rate of cases in the state. Information on the general population’s COVID-19 positivity rate was obtained from the State Department of Health.
Results
Rates of infection in our treatment population varied from 55 in August of 2020 to a high of 2333 per 100,000 in April of 2020. Rates of infection in the general population ranged from 167 per 100,000 to a high of 1367 in Nov of 2020. Our rates of infection did see a trend that was consistent with the curve of infections seen in the general population in the state (Table 1).
| Year | Month | Clinic COVID-19 rate per 100,000 | State COVID-19 rate per 100,00 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | March | 511 | 531 |
| 2020 | April | 2333 | 1031 |
| 2020 | May | 313 | 362 |
| 2020 | June | 141 | 167 |
| 2020 | July | 60 | 198 |
| 2020 | August | 55 | 207 |
| 2020 | September | 301 | 250 |
| 2020 | October | 403 | 551 |
| 2020 | November | 1110 | 1367 |
| 2020 | December | 873 | 1106 |
| 2021 | January | 1327 | 1297 |
| 2021 | February | 1034 | 752 |
Conclusions
Rates of infection were consistently at or below the state's rate per month for much of the 12-month period of study. The exceptions to this included April 2020, where we suspect that patients undergoing treatment were more likely than the general population to receive testing due to the center’s testing policies compared to the lack of tests for the general population. Indeed, throughout the studied period, the patients receiving fertility treatment were much more likely than the general population to receive a test, as they were undergoing testing while asymptomatic. Additionally, the rate in February of 2021 was higher than that of the general population.
Impact Statement
The Covid-19 pandemic was unprecedented in the history of gynecologic endocrinology and infertility, and impacted the ability of patients to access fertility care worldwide. Our findings reveal that with proper mitigation techniques, infertility treatment can be safely delivered even in the face of a pandemic without radically increasing the risk of infection.
References
None
P-448 6:30 AM Wednesday, October 20, 2021
Footnotes
SUPPORT: None