Endocrine Abstracts

JOINT1676

Introduction: Women conceiving by fertility treatment have a planned pregnancy, easing adherence to preconception recommendations, which they are expected to be highly motivated to comply with. However, little is known about the actual adherence among these women. Thus, we investigate to what extent women conceiving by fertility treatment adhere to recommendations from the Danish Health Authority regarding preconception health behaviour and whether the adherence differs from that observed in women conceiving naturally. Secondly, we elucidate differences in health behaviour in early pregnancy by mode of conception.

Material and methods : A cross-sectional study using clinical patient-reported questionnaire data from 23 443 nulliparous women collected in connection with their first-trimester nuchal translucency scan from 2012 to 2022 at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark. The women answered an online clinical questionnaire including information on whether they conceived by fertility treatment, which type of treatment, and their health behaviours before and in early pregnancy. This included alcohol consumption, smoking, exercise, and intake of dietary supplements. Differences in health behaviours by mode of conception were analysed using multiple logistic regression with adjustments of age and educational level.

Results: Overall, 91% of women responded to the questionnaire. Women who conceived by MAR (15%) had healthier preconception behaviours with significantly higher odds of taking folic acid supplements (aOR 11.04), smoking cessation due to planning of pregnancy (aOR 1.72), and avoiding smoking (aOR 4.67), passive smoking (aOR 2.02), and alcohol consumption (aOR 2.40) compared to women conceiving naturally. Despite these healthier behaviours, adherence among women conceiving by MAR was only 30.6% for alcohol avoidance and 42.7% for meeting the recommended hours of exercise per week. In early pregnancy, both groups generally exhibited healthy behaviours; however, women conceiving by MAR still had significantly healthier behaviours overall, except for exercise.

Conclusion: Women conceiving by MAR generally exhibited healthier preconception behaviours than women conceiving naturally, though they showed poor adherence to recommendations on avoiding alcohol and engaging in exercise. In early pregnancy, women conceiving by MAR also overall demonstrated healthier behaviours. Health professionals at fertility clinics may consider motivating women to engage in exercise and avoid alcohol.