Black recipients of oocyte donation experience lower live birth rates compared with White recipients.

Research Question: Is minority race associated with worse oocyte donation outcomes?

Design: Retrospective analysis of 926 oocyte recipients who underwent a donor cycle with fresh embryo transfer at a single fertility centre between January 2009 and June 2015. Race was self-reported. To adjust for repeat donors within the sample, mixed models were used to analyse donor parameters and recipient outcomes. The recipient outcome models were adjusted for age, body mass index and primary infertility diagnosis.

Results: The study consisted of 767 (82.8%) White, 41 (4.4%) Black, 63 (6.8%) Asian and 55 (5.9%) Hispanic women. Compared with White recipients, the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for clinical pregnancy was 0.39 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.19-0.79) for Black, 0.55 (95% CI 0.31-0.98) for Hispanic and 0.88 (95% CI 0.51-1.53) for Asian recipients. The aOR for live birth was 0.47 (95% CI 0.23-0.98) for Black, 0.58 (95% CI 0.32-1.06) for Hispanic and 0.62 (95% 0.35-1.09) for Asian recipients. A subgroup analysis restricted to cycles with racially concordant donors and recipients showed that the odds of clinical pregnancy and live birth were further reduced among Black recipients, with aOR of 0.28 (95% CI 0.09-0.81) and 0.30 (95% CI 0.09-0.98), respectively.

Conclusions: Black and Hispanic oocyte donation recipients experience lower clinical pregnancy rates and Black recipients experience lower live birth rates compared with White recipients. Racially discordant donor oocyte cycles involving donors and recipients of different races present an opportunity to further investigate the cause of disparity.